


On the Wings of an Angel

by Moonlight Mist (MisteryMaiden)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Supernatural
Genre: Gabriel Lives, Gabriel is Harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-07 11:16:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 53
Words: 166,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3172392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisteryMaiden/pseuds/Moonlight%20Mist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All angel's know that when they die, the cease to exist. All angel's know that there's no 'after' for them. Just like all angel's know that God created more than one Earth.</p>
<p>Gabriel's finding out that two of those former facts aren't as set in stone as he thought. He's also finding out that the answer behind the long sought question of 'Where do angels go when they die?' has a lot to do with that last fact.</p>
<p>Maybe dying wasn't as bad as it could have been.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Who Said the End wasn't the Beginning?

No one knew what happened to Angels when they died, not even the Archangels. Death wasn’t talking, either, so the Heavenly Host had just assumed that they ceased to exist upon their destruction.

Gabriel was finding out that that wasn’t entirely true.

He was only partially aware of the forest around him but that didn’t mean anything as he was restricted inside the bark of the tree which held his Grace. It was odd, he noted, not being a full conscious and only being part of himself. If this was what it was like when angel’s Fell, than Gabriel couldn’t see the appeal of it. It was beyond _boring_.

Of course he wasn’t the full consciousness of the Archangel Gabriel. He was just the Grace and the Angelic memories that a human brain wouldn’t be able to handle. Every now and again, new memories would join him in the tree but Gabriel didn’t pay much attention to those additions. He had a feeling that it would only make his entrapped state that much more difficult to handle.

Gabriel was also aware that he was no longer on the original Earth. His Father had made many different universes (and with them, Earths) but the original was the one where the Winchester’s had been born. As it was the First Earth, most angels focused on that one as well, with a few seraphs assigned to keep tabs on the other universes. Gabriel himself had mostly kept to that Earth but every once in a while, he would sneak up to Heaven and to another Earth when he was bored enough.

He wondered how everything was going on that Earth; his last memory was of Lucifer killing him after all and he really hoped that he didn’t die for those Winchester’s just to muck up that plan he’d given them. Then again, Gabriel very much doubted that Lucifer would let the other Earth’s be just because he had managed to destroy that particular one so it was likely that those two morons had managed to succeed.

It was also apparent to Gabriel that the forest around him was mostly dead, which was something that felt odd to him. There were plenty of creatures living in this forest and he (or was it the tree? Gabriel was having trouble separating the two of them) was in full bloom. It must have looked out of place in the strange, dead forest, and yet Gabriel couldn’t find it in himself to care.

If he was going to be here for God knew how long, then he might as well look good while doing it. He doubted it would be anytime soon that his main conscious found him.

* * *

Harry James Potter was a not so ordinary first year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It didn’t help that he had recently been caught after hours with his friend Hermione as they were sneaking a baby dragon to the Astronomy Tower at midnight. Luckily they’d gotten the dragon away before they’d been caught but it hadn’t stopped the docked points (fifty from each of them and another fifty from Neville, as he’d been caught trying to warn them). The fifty from Draco Malfoy didn’t seem all that fair in the long run, as Gryffindor ended up docked one hundred and fifty points.

So here they were, all four of them serving detention in the middle of the Forbidden Forest with something killing unicorns on the loose. Harry was even stuck with Draco since the blond Slytherin hadn’t been able to last long before he’d taken the opportunity to scare Neville. _‘I hate people like him,’_ Harry thought uncharitably as they continued following the unicorn blood through the forest.

He had never expected to come across the dying (how did he know it wasn’t dead?) unicorn that had a large, black leaning over it. _‘It’s drinking the unicorn’s blood,’_ he realized in utter horror. His stomach clench in nausea and his scar throbbed in angry pain as the figure noticed them.

He barely registered Draco’s scream of horror or the fact that he’d fallen as he backed up, his ankle caught in the root of a tree. There was a humming in his head that he couldn’t ignore and the unicorn killing figure seemed to become less important the louder the humming got.

The centaur showing up to drive the figure away managed to regain his attention and Harry blinked as the humming dimmed. _‘The unicorn,’_ his mind whispered and Harry focused on the bright creature that lay dying.

His magic swelled inside his chest as Harry, more than anything, wanted the unicorn to be alright. His magic exploded outwards, feeling similar to when he’d found himself on the roof of his primary school building.

A sharp intake of surprise was the only thing Harry heard before he was consumed with a head-pounding dizziness that made him want to bury his head in his knees. However the rest of his body seemed to be rebelling as well as he couldn’t bring himself to move his knees in the required position that would need.

Arms picked him up, feeling strangely safe, and Harry felt himself be carried out of the dark and intruding woods.

He lost consciousness not long after hearing the concerned voice of Hagrid from overhead.


	2. Finding Oneself is Never Easy

Harry woke the next day with a splitting headache to the all white paint of the Hospital Wings. He let out a protesting groan at the brightness of the light, eyes and head giving displeased throbs at its presence.

Madame Pomfrey hovered over him in concern as Harry let his eyes slowly adjust to the brightness; it was greatly helped by the potion that she coaxed down his throat soothingly. Finally, no longer afraid of throwing up, Harry managed to sit up to and locate his glasses, sliding them onto his face once he had them in hand.

“Alright, dear?” Madame Pomfrey asked sympathetically. “Hagrid brought you in last night with the worst case of magical exhaustion I’ve seen in a long time.”

Harry certainly felt exhausted, that was for sure. His whole body was tingling with an aching tiredness that made him want to go back to sleep and stay that way for a week.

“You should be fine in a few days but until then, you’re on strict bed-rest! You’re not to be going to classes or casting any magic for at least the next week!” Her tone gave way to no argument.

“You said I’d be fine in a few days!” Harry protested. While missing classes didn’t really upset him, the thought of not being able to cast magic did.

“And you will,” she confirmed. “However with a magical core as young as yours, it isn’t wise to cast anything until your core is without a doubt recovered, less we risk doing permanent damage to it.”

The thought of permanent damage had any lingering protests filter quickly out of his head and Harry sighed, nodding in a resigned agreement.

Two hours later and he was free to go, wand confiscated for the next week to prevent any temptation. He had a sneaking suspicion that the nurse was also trying to ensure that he would come back for his checkups as well.

Ron and Hermione were in classes, leaving Harry with the option of either going back to the dorm or waiting in the Great Hall for something to do. The order to reframe from classes had been sent to all of the teachers but Harry was also given a copy, just in case he had any run-ins with Filch.

Finally deciding to just head back to the dorms, Harry was stopped by the booming voice of Hagrid.

“’Arry!” the large man boomed in the hall. “’Ere ya are! Ma’ame Pomfrey said ya’d were a’right to go?”

“Yeah,” the eleven year old answered, nodding his head as well. “I was going to head back to the dorm…”

Hagrid didn’t seem to take the hint that Harry was trying to get across and motioned for the small first year to follow him. “’Ere’s som’on’ that wan’s ta meet ya!”

Curiosity piqued, Harry followed the man out onto the grounds. As they got closer to Hagrid’s cottage, Harry gasped in surprise.

Standing at the edge of the Forbidden Forest was the same unicorn from the day before, watching him almost fondly as they approached. “You’re alright!” Harry grinned as he forgot his tired body and sprinted forward to the waiting animal.

“’e’s got ya ta thank for it!” Hagrid smiled as he came up behind the small child. “Ah couldn’ believe it when Firenze told meh what ‘appened! Powerful magic, that.”

The unicorn nuzzled him as Harry pet the equestrian happily. “You’re welcome,” he said shyly, blushing as the huffing snort he received in return. “Do you have a name?”

The unicorn nipped at his hair in response, so Harry considered that a ‘no’. “I’ll call you Hope,” he told her, suddenly sure without a doubt that the unicorn was female. The unicorn considered for a moment before ducking her head in agreement.

Harry spent hours petting Hope the unicorn perfectly happy to receive his attentions and every once in awhile, Hope would begin to nip at his hair in affection; Hagrid seemed beyond pleased to have both of them there as well. It wasn’t until the sky began to darken that Harry was escorted back up to the castle by the larger man with promises of being able to come and visit Hope another day.

Harry kept quiet about his new friend to Ron and Hermione as a voice in his head said that Hope wouldn’t appreciate the two cutting into their time. Like the other things Harry had found himself just knowing, Harry didn’t question the knowledge.

He had made another friend to add to his short list and that was well worth the discomfort that he would have to endure.

* * *

It was just before exams, maybe the week before, when Harry was nudged by his unicorn friend into the Forbidden Forest.

He’d gone in there twice since he had used accidental magic to heal Hope after Voldemort had attacked her. The centaurs seemed to be neutral to his presence in the forest and Harry had enjoyed exploring it with Hope to keep him company and Hagrid by his side. It was during one of these few times that Firenze had spoken to him again and Harry had learned who it was that had attacked Hope in the first place. Said unicorn had seemed displeased at the identification of her attacker and the reason that she was attacked in the first place.

Yet Hagrid wasn’t here this time, too busy cleaning up other parts of the grounds to be supervising his visits with Hope. “We need to wait for Hagrid,” he told the impatient unicorn.

Hope gave an irritated snort and began forcibly pushing him towards the forest, her horn going easily under his arm as to not hurt him. Harry frowned at her. “You don’t want Hagrid to be there?” he asked in confusion.

Hope gave a pleased huff and pushed him towards the forest once more. Harry relented and began walking on his own, letting her lead him into the thick trees that created the border of the forest.

Most of the Forbidden Forest was made of dead or dying trees and seemed to be dark and depressing at first sight. That in itself made it shocking to find that as he and Hope roamed deeper into the forest woods, the trees and plants seemed to become brighter and more lively than they were in the first ring of trees.

There were more animals the father they went in as well. Unicorns of all sizes seemed to be roaming the woods peacefully, only giving him a questioning look before going back to their grazing. A few centaurs gave them acknowledging nods as they walked passed and soon Harry was greeted with the sight of all sorts of animals.

Looking around him, Harry could understand where Hagrid’s fascination with magical animals came from. Unicorns, Pegasi, centaurs, and what looked liked nymphs were all present in the deepest depths of the Forbidden Forest.

Finally, Hope came to the stop before a large clearing inside a circle of thriving trees. Harry blinked at the awe inspiring image it made and couldn’t help but take a closer look at all of the details the clearing held.

The grass was greener than he’d ever seen grass and it was as tall as he was. Large patches of flowers where mingled in with the grass and Harry swore that he saw a doe grazing on the opposite side of the clearing.

What really caught his attention, though, was the giant tree that stood proudly in the middle of it all. “Oh,” Harry breathed and took in the glowing green leaves and the shining bark of the tree. A distinct humming began in his head.

 Hope nudged him into the clearing gently, Harry not protesting as the tree kept most of his attention. She whinnied softly before taking a few steps back until she had returned to the edge of the clearing.

At any other time, Harry would have found this odd. In another place, perhaps it would have even concerned him. Now, right here and in front of this tree, Harry could only hear a welcoming hum and feel the crackles of a power that felt so familiar to him that it was almost like coming home. He took a few steps closer to the tree, his feet seeming to move on their own.

As he grew closer to it, the tree seemed to shudder in greeting. In the corner of his eyes, he could see the unicorns, pegasi, and centaurs they had passed before gather in the circle of trees the surrounded the giant middle tree. They all seemed to be watching his approach to the tree with anticipation. For some reason, Harry felt a spark of pride and confidence (of course they should!) at that thought.

Unlike when he felt the need to mouth off to his relatives or to fight back when Snape gained up on him, Harry didn’t fight the thoughts down. It was a confidence that he’d never felt before and unlike when he would certainly be facing punishment Harry didn’t feel the overwhelming fear which usually came afterwards; the certainty that this was the last time he would be able to get away with such a remark.

The tree rustled above his head. When had he gotten so close to it? Harry didn’t bother to try and remember, hand reaching out to touch the welcoming bark.

_Skin on bark._

_Light filling the clearing, blinding and welcoming._

_Power and memories, centuries of knowledge filling in gaps that he hadn’t noticed before._

_Whole; he was complete._

_Wings stretching out of unused, unnoticed, muscles._

_Names, so many and spread so far. Two at the front, ringing in his head._

_He was Harry, eleven years old and orphan. Wizard and Boy-Who-Lived._

_He was Gabriel, older than the universes themselves and Archangel. The Messenger, Archangel of Judgment._

**_They lifted their head back and screamed._ **


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter didn't want to be written...no, strike that, it wanted to be written in some many different ways that I have about four different versions of it. There were just so many directions that I could have taken the 'Gabriel is Harry' thing but this ended up being my favorite.
> 
> I was actually rather surprised about the response I've gotten so far, especially since this is my first fic in the Supernatural 'verse. It was mostly written because there's a severe lack of 'Gabriel is Harry' fics out there. The only one I could really find that was even somewhat like this is the Accidental Vessel on ff.net by Alatar Maia (which is awesome and I totally recommend) and I was just like 'what if Harry was Gabriel and not just his vessel?' and the rest just sort of happened from there...
> 
> I hope you enjoy the new chapter! Remember: comments, a happy author makes!

Fallen Angels were rare.

It wasn’t because there weren’t many angel’s that wanted to know what it was like to be human, wanted the choices that Free Will would grant them. It was because of the simple fact that if an angel Fell, there wasn’t any guarantee that they would survive the experience and if they did? If they managed to successfully become human and live a human life? Well, after a while they would eventually find their Grace, reclaim their memories and return to the Host.

Or die as the Grace, everything they once were, ate them from the inside out. It really wasn't a surprise that not many angels took that chance.

Now Gabriel hadn’t Fallen, in the strictest sense; he hadn’t willingly ripped out his Grace and become human. Gabriel had died after having his own sword shoved through his gut.

So when the process of regaining his Grace didn’t go exactly as it _should have_ , Gabriel really couldn’t find it in himself to be surprised.

His current situation was odd; he was Gabriel but he wasn’t. Not completely, anyways, and not in the way that he had been before. He also had the misfortune to find himself stuck in the back of his own mind, not really completely apart of his human soul but slowly getting there.

When Harry’s _(their)_ hand had touched the tree and the flood of memories had consumed them both, Gabriel had been disappointed to note that their reintegration into one being hadn’t gone as planned. They were Harry and they were Gabriel but they were also neither. Sure, his Grace had filled his human body but that was it. They weren’t one in the same yet, weren’t completely merged with one another.

Their Grace, once settled, sat unmoving in the core of their human body and what was left of Gabriel’s consciousness was left sitting in the back of his human counterpart’s mind with nothing but white walls to great him.

There had been a hint of something else there when he had first arrived; a dark shadowed corner that reminded him of the most twisted demons residing in Hell but his Grace had easily destroyed whatever it was and Gabriel had been by his lonesome ever since.

Quite frankly, he was bored.

He was also hopeful. He could feel his Grace mixing slowly with his human soul, easing them together in a way that would hopefully keep from destroying them as it had angels in the past. Gabriel really didn’t want to re-experience dying again anytime soon, thank you.

That unfortunately meant that he would have to be content in waiting for the process to complete itself at its current rate and Gabriel let out the most frustrate sigh as he could.

This was going to take a while.

* * *

Harry was reluctant to board the train home, when the time came. Hogwarts had quickly become his home and Hope had become one of his closest friends. He didn’t want to leave Hagrid behind, either and though Ron and Hermione would be on the train with him, he was dreading the moment he would have to say goodbye when they arrived at the station.

He was also anxious about something and could feel a strange itch of excitement beneath his skin. The feeling confused him and had been confusing him for weeks now. It was ever present and it constantly nagged at the back of his head. Trying to originate the origin of the feeling was nearly impossible as it felt as if it had always been there but was only now making itself known.

He’d first noticed it after he’d woken up in a meadow with Hope, deep into the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid had found them there sleeping next to the most beautiful and green tree in the entire forest. For the life of him, Harry couldn’t remember having gotten there or what had caused him to fall asleep in the first place but as Hope hadn’t seemed to worried, he let the nagging feeling of having _forgotten_ something fade as the days passed.

Voldemort had been a suitable distraction in that area as well.

The not so dead Dark Lord was another area of confusion for the preteen. Quirrell had been unable to touch him, his hands burning whenever he tried and though Dumbledore’s explanation made his stomach flutter, somehow Harry doubted that it was a result of something his mother had done when he was only a baby. After all, how many times had Dudley and his friends managed to chase him down and beat him? How had the jinx that Quirrell had attempted worked if he was protected?

It just didn’t add up.

“Come on Harry! The train’s about to leave!” Ron called pulling Harry from his thoughts of what had happened only a mere few days ago.

Giving one last look at the castle, the only place that he’d ever felt at home, Harry boarded the train for home, already counting down the days until he would be able to come back.

* * *

A pale and rather gaunt looking man watched the train leave with a frown. He, just like every other being sensitive to such things, had felt the explosion of power that had shaken the cosmos itself.

However, the human that was at the center of the explosion looked, at first glance, like every other human that was walking about the small station.

Yet, if he looked closely enough, he could see the pale outline of three magnificent pairs of wings before they would blink out of existence once more, as if they’d never been there. In all of his years, the pale man had never seen anything like this before and that he was seeing it now was both interesting and more alarming than he would care to admit.

“What are You up too?” he murmured as he looked up at the sky above. While he knew that the being he was addressing wasn’t there, the pale rider could almost imagine the smug radiance that would emit from His form as he looked past blue sky and bright stars into another dimension entirely.

With one last look at the human that was the fourth, and the youngest, Archangel, Death turned from the station and began to walk away.

He still had much work to do.

And maybe, just maybe, a couple of humans to speak to.


	4. Chapter 4

The summer holidays were just as Harry remembered them; filled with long, hot days and plenty of manual labor.

After a year of magic and the occasional danger, Harry found the atmosphere of Number Four Privet Drive to be more than a little boring. Not even Dudley and his gang gave him the same worries as they once had, not after facing Voldemort himself and coming out alive. Harry just couldn't really take two or three small humans seriously…

Where had that thought come from? Harry wondered with a frown. Sure, Dudley wasn't nearly as scary as the man ( _thing,_  came a derisive voice in the back of his head) that had killed his parents and wouldn't hesitate to kill him and yeah, neither Piers nor Denis were all that scary anymore either but, well, it wasn't like he was anything special. They were all kids, right?

"Oi!" Speaking of Dudley… "Freak, mum says that you better get a move on with weeding or you won't be getting any supper!"

Harry sighed and shook his head in a useless effort to clear it. Getting lost in thought was dangerous if he wanted to get done quickly enough. He'd already gone with breakfast and lunch and his stomach was protesting the rough treatment after months of having as much food as he wanted available. It wouldn't do to loss the weight that he'd gained from his stay at Hogwarts.

Digging his hands into the soil, Harry couldn't help but wonder about his friends. Hagrid had promised to write updates on Hope all summer and Ron and Hermione had told him that they'd write as much as they could. Yet, Harry hadn't received a letter once during the month and a half that summer had been going.

Just the year before, Harry would have taken this as a sign that he had over thought their friendship. He would have thought that maybe he wasn't that important to them after all. Now though something seemed off when he thought about their promise and the lack of letters. It just didn't seem like them to ignore him.

With another sigh, Harry finished up the weeding and moved to the shed. He still needed to repaint the fence before he could move onto his inside chores.

* * *

It was worth the Dursley's throwing a party downstairs and forgetting his birthday ( _as if they'd ever bothered to remember it,_  that snide voice that Harry wasn't sure was his said) and being locked in his room just for the reprieve from chores that if gave him. Sure, Harry knew that he would be back to work once more tomorrow but being allowed to immediately go upstairs for the night and do whatever he wanted without having to worry about time constraints? That was worth the work load he would be getting tomorrow to 'make up for lost time', as his uncle liked to say.

It would have been more worth it if there wasn't a strange…something sitting on his bed. With bat-like ears and stunningly large round green eyes, Harry couldn't decide if it was adorable or the ugliest thing he'd ever seen. So ugly it was adorable maybe? Harry shook his head, dislodging that rather rude thoughts (where had they even come from, he wondered) and focused on the staring creature. "Err-Hello?"

"Harry Potter!" the creature said in a high pitched voice that made him want to both wince and, irrationally, hug it. Where are these strange thoughts coming from? He wondered as he stamped down on that urge. "So long has Dobby wanted to meet you sir…Such an honor it is…"

"T-thank you?" Harry's voice trailed in a questioning tilt at the end. Because really, how often was it that strange creatures decided to break into your house only to fanboy at someone…wait what? Harry blinked and frowned at the thought. Just what was a fanboy? "Who are you?" Harry asked politely. Well, more politely than 'What are you?' would be.

"Dobby, sir. Dobby the house-elf," the newly named Dobby said.

"Oh," Harry said as he studied the pillowcase that the house-elf was wearing. Were pillowcases normal clothing for house-elves? He wondered. "Not to be rude or anything," he added as the voices of two unfamiliar people came from downstairs. "But this isn't the best time for a house-elf to be in my room."

He was horrified as Dobby's head bowed and the glisten of tears could be seen at the edges of his eyes. ( _Definitely adorable,_  a voice said in his head). "Not that it isn't wonderful to meet you!" Harry assured hurriedly. "But…is there something that you needed?"

"Oh yes sir," Dobby said earnestly. "Dobby has come to tell you sir…it is difficult, sir…Dobby wonders where to begin…"

"The beginning, maybe?" Harry suggested and was rewarded with wide eyes. He froze at the wide eyes and blushed at the look of awe in them. "It's just," he stuttered as his cheeks heated. "Wouldn't that make the most sense? Um, that's the way stories are usually told, right?"

"Dobby heard tell," the elf began slowly, looking more awe-inspired than before, "that Harry Potter met the Dark Lord for a second time, just weeks ago…that Harry Potter escaped  _again._ "

How had he heard that? Harry wondered as his blush increased and he nodded in confirmation. He was once again horrified as the little elf's eyes filled with tears once more. "Ah," Dobby said, dabbing his eyes. "Harry Potter is valiant and bold! He has braved so many dangers already! But Dobby has come to protect Harry Potter, to warn him, even if he  _does_  have to punish himself later… _Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts._ "

Harry stared, stunned. Even that snide voice that made comments in the back of his head (my conscience maybe?) was silent and Dobby just looked back at him earnestly from his spot next to Harry's bed.

"W-what?" Harry stammered after another moment. "But I've got to go back! Term is only just a few more weeks away! You don't know what it's like here…I don't belong here! I belong at Hogwarts!"

Hogwarts, where he met his first friends, met Hope and talked with Hagrid and was able to eat as much as he wanted! Where Ron and Hermione were and the castle felt like home and hummed against his skin! He couldn't  _not_  go back!

"No, no, no," Dobby said, his ears flapping as he shook his head. "Harry Potter must stay here where he is safe! He is much too important and good to lose! If Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, he will be in mortal danger!"

"Why?" Harry asked, surprised. Surely Voldemort wouldn't be back again after last year!

"There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year," Dobby whispered, trembling suddenly.

"What terrible things? Who's plotting them?" Harry asked, suddenly suspicious. Why would a house-elf come warn  _him_  of these things? Why not go to Dumbledore?

Dobby frantically shook his head, suddenly hitting himself with his small hands. "Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!" Harry started in alarm and moved to stop the house-elf before he drew the attention of the Dursley's.

"It's not Voldemort, is it?" Harry asked in effort to regain the elf's attention. Dobby stopped hitting himself to shriek instead.

"Not the name, sir! Never the name!" the house-elf wailed loudly. He heard the voices from downstairs hush and quickly covered Dobby's mouth with his hand.

"Shh! You'll upset uncle Vernon!" he whispered harshly, his stomach churning in fear of what his uncle would do should he come up here and find them. "I won't say it again, please, just be quiet!"

Dobby hushed and nodded. Harry removed his hand in relief as the elf began to speak again, this time his voice quieter than before. "N-not  _He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named_ , sir."

The elf was being completely unhelpful and nothing else he said was making any sense to Harry's growing annoyance. It seemed that Dobby was trying to do his utmost best to both warn and convince him not to return to Hogwarts, something that was definitely not going to happen. Like he was going to stay here? He'd rather face Voldemort again.

Eventually, Vernon made an appearance and Harry was only just able to hide Dobby from the man before the argument continued.

Well, at least until something the elf said caught his attention.

"How do  _you_  know that my friends haven't been writing me?" He demanded after cutting himself off from his initial response. Dobby shifted in discomfort before bring out a stack of letters.

It escalated from there and ended with Dobby escaping the room and dumping pudding onto Mr. and Mrs. Mason. The look of their faces when the owl burst in with the notice from the Ministry only darkened the already purple face of his uncle that much more.

_'_ _At least he forgot about my trunk,'_  Harry thought as he watched bars being added to the outside of his window the next day. He didn't know how the rather large item had been overlooked but at least he'd be able to get his homework done now that his days were freed and he'd nothing else to do.

* * *

Meeting the House-elf had answered a lot of the questions that Harry had had about his lack of letters and contact from his friends. The rather large stack of letters also answered just how many times that they had written to him and for some reason, his stomach clenched in anger that while he had thought he had been forgotten, Ron and Hermione must have thought he didn't care enough to respond to him.

Knowing Hermione, his lack of response had most likely worried her and Ron was probably beginning to think that he wasn't good enough for Harry to respond to.

So after three days locked in his room after Dobby's visit, Harry was beyond surprised to see a flying car outside his window with three familiar redheads inside.

"Ron?!" He whispered in shock. "Fred? George?"

"Hiya Harry," Ron said, grinning brightly at him from the back of the blue flying Ford Angelia.

As Harry rushed around the room packing up his trunk, Ron explained that he had been worried after Harry hadn't responded to any of his letters and that after hearing about the warning that Harry had gotten from the ministry for miss-use of magic from their dad, Ron had convinced Fred and George to help with a rescue mission. All three were eyeing the bars on his window with distaste, not that Harry could really blame them.

"Stand back," Ron told him as Harry grabbed his trunk and Hedwig's cage in preparation to leave as quickly as possible. Going by the size of the hook and the fact that it was tied to the end of the car, Harry knew that the noise of bars being ripped off the side of the house would definitely wake up his family and he wanted to be already gone before his uncle managed to get the door to his bedroom open.

Sure enough, Harry heard his uncle give a startled shout from the master bedroom a few rooms over and the large thump the signified that Dudley had been startled into rolling off the bed. Harry ignored the thundering approach of his uncle's footstep ( _Has this guy never heard of a diet?_  A voice wondered in the back of his mind) and handed over Hedwig and them his trunk to Ron before making a move to get into the car himself.

By the time he'd gotten both feet inside the car door, Harry was pleased to hear his uncle had only just managed to get the padlocks on the outside of Harry's bedroom door open. The look of pure rage on Vernon Dursley's face, purple and looking rather likely to explode, had Harry and the three Weasley's laughing all the way back to their home.

Telling the listening redhead's about Dobby hadn't gotten the reaction that Harry might have expected. Ron was convinced it was Malfoy and Fred and George were inclined to agree with him. Harry wasn't as convinced.

The way Dobby warned him struck him as odd. From what he could gather from listening to Ron and the Twins talk, house-elves had to obey their orders which were given to them by their Master yet it almost seemed as if Dobby had been avoiding saying certain things, like he couldn't say it outright.

No, he told himself firmly. You're over thinking this. It was just some stupid ploy to get you to stay away from Hogwarts this year.

Somehow, the words rang empty in his head.

"Don't worry mate," Ron assured him from the seat next to his. Hedwig's cage sat empty between them, the owl happily flying next to the car after weeks of being confined. For some reason, Harry itched to be next to her but the idea of being on a broom didn't sit well in the pit of his stomach. "Malfoy isn't going to try something like that again. I bet he'll be real surprised when you show up at the beginning of the year, too! Just imagine the look on his face!"

It was a bit funny, Harry thought as he imagine the furious and embarrassed look that would twist Malfoy's aristocratic features of the blonde's face. Harry allowed himself to giggle at the thought which soon turned into full blown laughter between himself and Ron.

All previous thoughts were completely forgotten as Harry looked out the windshield of the car to catch his first view of the Burrow. The house was an odd structure that seemed to be holding itself together on nothing as it was stacked together in a rather unstable looking way.

That wasn't what took his breath away, however. The house seemed to shimmer and glow against the sunrise and every once in awhile, the glow would flicker and become an entirely different color. It was like watching a rainbow in river form and Harry never wanted to take his eyes off it again. "Awesome," he breathed much to Ron's delight. The twins grinned at him as Fred lowered the car onto the front lawn.

They had arrived.


	5. Chapter 5

Harry's second impression (the first being at Platform Nine and Three Quarters) of Molly Weasley was that he never, ever wanted to be on the receiving end of her anger for as long as he lived. Harry watched with wide eyes as Ron and the Twins seemed to shrink in on themselves as their mother tore them a new one.

"You could have been killed!" She shrieked at them angrily, seemingly either not realizing or caring that she'd already said about three different variations of the same thing. Finally she turned to Harry, who took a step back as the attention was suddenly on him.

"I'm very pleased to see you, Harry dear," she said kindly. "Come in and have some breakfast."

The sudden shift from raging to easy smiles honestly concerned Harry for a moment as he fought not to gape at the redheaded woman's back. He turned to look at Ron for instruction and his equally redheaded friend just shrugged and grinned at him.

Harry wondered at the sanity of his friend's family as he moved to enter the Burrow for the first time, the shimmering light around it seeming to dance in welcome. Not that he wasn't grateful for the rescue, because he really was, but who in their right minds would knowingly do something that would make this woman angry? No one in their right minds, that who.

The inside of the Burrow was probably more beautiful that the outside. The walls glowed around them and each object seemed to radiate a different glow inside the rather crapped room that was obviously the kitchen. Harry could barely keep himself from asking about all the different items and just stared at them all instead. The whole house seemed to be welcoming him at once and Harry felt the insane urge to greet it.

Which was odd because how did you greet a house?

Mrs. Weasley was moving around the kitchen like a pro, cooking breakfast while as continuing to scold her children. Fred and George were both shifting uncomfortably in their seats while Ron looked more than a tad embarrassed at the continuation of his mother's ire. Harry rather doubted that he'd ever been in this much trouble with the stern woman before.

"I don't blame you dear," she assured him as she began piling food on his plate. The smell of the sausages and eggs made his mouth water and Harry was forced to fight down shock as Mrs. Weasley began buttering his toast for him.

Fred and George were pleading their case but the twelve year old could already tell their mother didn't believe their claims of starvation and cloud cover. Harry wasn't sure whether or not he was grateful for this; on one hand he didn't have to explain his relative's treatment of him yet on the other hand, Harry would be forced to go back next summer as well…

His thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of a small redheaded girl who promptly entered the kitchen, squealed, and disappeared. Harry stared at the spot she'd been in with shock.

"Ginny," Ron explained. "She's been talking about you all summer. Reckon she wants your autograph."

Harry looked at him blankly as he registered the information. Ron's little sister had a  _crush_  on him?

That thought was also interrupted by the entrance of another Weasley. As Mrs. Weasley began lecturing Mr. Weasley, Harry had to fight to keep from laughing as the patriarch of the family seemed to become more and more flustered by the second.

It was the best breakfast that Harry had ever had.

* * *

The days spent at the Burrow were quickly becoming Harry's best memories to date. The Weasley family was beyond welcoming to him and Harry couldn't have been more grateful to the hospitality that they were showing. Ron had even cleared him a space in his room, much to Harry's delight. The Twins seemed to have made it their personal mission to teach him the art of mischief making (Ron included, of course) and many of their antics had Harry laughing hours later.

Ginny was still too shy to talk to him but Harry still managed to get in a few words to the girl before she became flustered enough to flee the room. It was a slow progress but the approving looks from all of her siblings made it worth it, not to mention the few times that Harry managed to hide his presence from her, Ginny proved to have a wicked tongue when upset with her older brothers.

Percy had also finally managed to come out of his room a few days into Harry's stay. It didn't take long to understand that Percy and the Twins were the exact opposite of each other and decidedly did not get along because of it and something in Harry protested vehemently at the fighting the three did until two week before school started, Harry snapped.

In hindsight, it also probably would have been better if he hadn't used watered down flour on them, seeing as the Twins took the opportunity to hug the laughing observers and spread the mess. However the look on their faces at the Thing One and Thing Two signs that Harry had glued to their backs had been worth it. Percy had gotten his own sign that read: Super Genius Prefect, cross at your own peril.

It was obvious to everyone who had done it. Ron had never even tried pranking his brothers before and Ginny was too busy hiding from Harry most of the time to become fed up with the arguing. Mr. Weasley spent a good two days laughing every time one of the twins found flour in a new place on themselves while Mrs. Weasley tried her best to be stern but was caught giggling when she thought no one was listening.

The Twins, however, weren't about to let the prank go (and were thrilled that someone had actually pranked them) and enlisted a surprised Percy for revenge. Harry could tell that Percy fully knew what Harry had done but never said a word as a prank war ensued.

By the time the prank war had trickled down until it was only left over pranks that had yet to be set off claiming victims. When the Hogwarts letter arrived, the children of the Burrow weren't sure who was more pleased; them for returning to Hogwarts or Mr. and Mrs. Weasley for the break that the new school year would provide.

* * *

It was lucky, Harry thought as he looked around Diagon Ally, that Ron had remembered in time that Harry had never used the Floo System before. Instead of having him learn by experience and probably end up lost somewhere along the way, Mrs. Weasley had sent all her children along and had stepped in with him into the fireplace so he could learn by example instead.

Considering the many different ways it could have gone had Ron not pointed out the dangers (bless his redheaded friend) Harry found that being spit out into the Leaky Cauldron, covered in soot and hitting the wall of the pub was the least of what could have happened.

Looking up at eight concerned faces of seven redheads and one barkeeper, Harry knew that it probably wasn't a normal occurrence to have people being spit out like that. The fact that Mrs. Weasley, who had been with him, was completely soot free and fine Harry decided that the Floo System just hated him and also reached the conclusion that it was a mutual feeling.

"Alright, lad?" Tom asked as he helped the downed second year up. The rest of the bar was looking over at them in surprise as well. "Never seen the Floo do that to someone before," the barkeeper commented in amusement. "Best stick to Apparition and portkeys, I'd say. The Floo ain't something you want to mess with if it's already spitting you out like that."

"Thanks," Harry said as he accepted the hand up. The painful throb of his back and legs was ignored in favor of his aching head. The twelve year old brought one hand up to his temple, wincing as it throbbed one more time.

Tom gave him a sympathetic look and motioned for him to follow as the barkeeper turned back towards that bar. "A headache potion won't be amiss, ay lad?"

Harry gave a grateful nod as he was sat down at the bar and handed an open potion vial. Closing his eyes and bracing himself, Harry downed the rather nasty concoction in one gulp. His headache immediately began to fade and he gave a sigh of relief. "Thank Tom," he thanked the man.

"No problem," the barkeep assured him. "I keep those on hand for occasions just like this. You'd be surprised how many drunken wizards come crashing from the Floo after they slur out the wrong name." Tom winked at him as one of the current costumers let out an embarrassed grunt at the comment not too far from them.

They made their way to Gringotts from there. The white stone building was just like Harry remembered it except for the nearly blinding white aura that surrounded the place. Harry blinked as he walked up to the building and the aura flickered out towards him in welcome, similar to how the Burrow had responded to him when he had first arrived. The goblin that was standing guard glanced at him in shock, seemingly also able to see the aura around the bank.

Harry was about to ask the goblin about the strange occurrence but Mrs. Weasley had already begun pushing him forward inside the large building that was looming over them.

"Come along, dear," Mrs. Weasley said as he was pushed into the waiting building. "It's best that we get as much done as quickly as we can."

Yet it wasn't to be. As soon as Harry came up to the desk after the Weasley's had moved to the cart to wait for him, the teller goblin gave him and the key an incredulous stare before clearing his voice. "It would be to the benefit of Gringotts to have you meet with the Potter Family Account Manager," the teller said croakily. Harry stared at the goblin (was it as he or a she?) in shock.

"What about the Weasley's?" he asked, worrying his bottom lip. "I can't just disappear without them knowing!"

The goblin gave him a considering look before it nodded as it reached a decision. "Stonefist will inform the Weasley family of your whereabouts, Mr. Potter. It would be in all of our best interests for you and the Potter Account Manager to meet now instead of later." It looked grudgingly unhappy to admit that but motioned for Harry to follow all the same.

Harry honestly wouldn't have been able to find the Account Manager's office on his own, even if he had been given a map and was only a few feet away from the office door. The entire interior of the bank was just as bright and headache inducing as the outside and his glances gave off a strange glare as he attempted to make out any distinguishing features that would allow him to figure out where he was.

"Mr. Potter is here to see you, Account Manager Griphook," the teller goblin said to a door. Before Harry could wonder about that, said door swung open and he was nearly shoved inside before the teller turned and made his way back down to the main lobby.

"Mr. Potter," a goblin that Harry remembered was Griphook, the goblin that had taken him down to his vault the year before. "I was not expecting you to..." Griphook trailed off and began looking all that more closely at him.

Harry blinked as the goblin's face twisted into a parody of a sneer and a wince. "This is unexpected," the goblin muttered to himself as he looked Harry over. "Yet I do not see enough of a presence that I should. Tell me, Mr. Potter, have you experienced anything strange lately."

Harry looked at the goblin, about to shake his head 'no', when he paused. Strange? Well, he had been feeling off since he had awoken in that clearing with Hope. That voice that sometimes commented had also appeared around that time...why couldn't he remember going to that clearing?

"I will assume from the way you are hesitating that the answer to my question is 'yes'." Griphook sneered at him. "Yet you display no signs of possession or physical changes. So the question remains as to what, exactly, has changed in you."

"Changed?" Harry finally asked, his head throbbing painfully as the voice made itself known once more. ( _'Regained,'_  it whispered.  _'We've regained.'_ ) 'Regained what?' Harry wondered but there was no answer to his question to be found. "I don't know," he admitted to the waiting goblin.

"Situations like this are uncommon but not unheard of," Griphook sneered at him as he spoke. Harry was beginning to think that sneering was the default expression of goblins considering how many of them did it. "In the interests of keeping the integrity of our bank, we have devised ritual which will detect any malicious changes in a client or bring out any secondary parties that may be...'hitching a ride' as it were." The goblin focused completely on him. "Whether or not you take this ritual will decided on any and all access to accounts held under your name. Choose wisely."

Harry thought it over. The Dursley's ( _'bastards,'_  the voice said) wouldn't lift a finger to help pay for his school stuff but Harry wasn't shallow enough to think that money was worth potentially dangerous rituals (How do I know their dangerous? He didn't say they were...). No, Harry was far more curious to find out why he could see things that he couldn't before and what the goblins saw when looking at him that made him so different from the year before. "Okay," he consented.

The goblin snarled a smirk at him (which was weird) and ran a claw over the desk to retrieve a vial of something. "Drink," Griphook ordered after throwing the vial at him. "Then I will begin."

Harry drank and Griphook began chanting. The words were gnarled and had sounds that Harry had never heard before yet as he listened, it was almost like their meanings came to him. It wasn't that the words translated into English or that he heard English as the goblin spoke but like he knew the language enough to just know what was being said, no need for translations.

The walls around them pulsed with power and seemed to suddenly engulf him. It was searing hot and Harry nearly screamed as something within him answered the pulsing call.

The world burned around them and Harry saw only white.

* * *

Gabriel looked at the skinny boy before him. He'd been sitting here in the white landscape that he was aloud, catching the occasional glimpse outside, when his Grace has pulsed and the boy had appeared here.

"So you're what we look like now?" He asked aloud, taking in all the features that their main consciousness held. He, himself, did not have a form in the area where Grace met Soul. He was only their memories, after all, and until recently he had not had reason for distinguishing himself from their main conscious. It was odd enough to be aware that he was not what memory dictated him to be. Or even a 'him' really.

"Who are you?" their voice was strained and decidedly young in origin. Prepuberty, if Gabriel was taking a guess. Whatever had caused the pulse of their Grace had wanted them to meet.

"I'm you," he said easily. "And you are me."

"That doesn't make any sense!" the boy told him in irritation before surprise took over his features. "I didn't mean to say that..."

"The mind is not voice," Gabriel told him. "It's thought. What you think and what I think are what we here because while thoughts can be quiet in the outside, they are loud in the mind."

Harry, for that was what his current human name was, looked lost at the explanation and Gabriel didn't blame him for it. It was hard for a human mind to know all of its secrets and while they were slowly becoming one being again, Harry was still separated from him.

"What are you doing here?" they tried asking again. Gabriel frowned at their counterpart. Shouldn't he already know?

"I am you," he said again but this time, elaborated. "We were killed t and had separated from each other when reborn as a human. I am your memories and what you once were and will soon become again. We seem to be slowly reuniting and as we absorb one another, and as we do so our abilities will return to us."

Harry looked intrigued. "You're the voice," they said in shock. "The one that comments on things in my head."

"Our head," he corrected.

"Do you...er, we, have a name?" the boy wondered.

"We are Gabriel." Gabriel told him. "But we are also Harry, Ivan, Yvonne, Lu, Choa Xi, and many more." They had been born in so many different places, times, and genders that they had many names to choose from now, other than Loki, that is. "We have been reborn many times." Gabriel explained when he sensed the on-coming question.

"Oh," Harry blinked. "Why can't I see you?"

"I am you," Gabriel repeated again, getting frustrated at his own lack of understanding. Existing apart from himself was beginning to grate on his nerves. "I don't need a form because your form would also be mine and we are in our mind."

Harry gave a large sigh. "This is weird," they said in annoyance.

"Tell me about," Gabriel said, letting his earlier patience go in favor of actual conversation. "I wasn't even a separate being before and suddenly I have conscious thought because you aren't yet completely us."

"When will I be completely us again?" Harry felt the need to ask as he could feel excitment stirring from around him and inside him. Being in his head was strange.

"I don't know," Gabriel admitted. "But I would estimate based on the rate that we're going, we'll be one being again by the time you reach twenty, maybe sooner if something excelerates the rate."

Harry nodded and began fading away. "Will I be able to talk to you...us?" he paused. "Us again?"

"Whenever you want," Gabriel assured him. "I'm you, remember? I already speak to you, all you need to do in listen."

Harry was completely gone now and Gabriel was back to a pure white surrounding. The difference from before, however, was that he was more aware of both himself and his human mind than he was before.

'I wonder,' Gabriel thought as he received memories of how they had gotten here. 'If this means we're insane. Talking to yourself is supposed to be the first sign of it...'

Oh well.

* * *

Griphook was standing over him, looking as concerned as he'd ever seen a goblin look. "You are awake?" That was also nicer than he expected but from the uncertainty flickering accross the goblins face, Harry thought that it had something to do with what the goblins were seeing when looking at him.

"That was weird," he told the goblin, his usual thought to mouth filter seeming to have disappeared.

Griphook looked at him expectantly.

"I met myself," he told the goblin and gained the most incredulous look he'd ever seen. "He said that we'd been separated after we died before we were reborn. I think he, er, I am confused as to why we're still separate but we think it's a good thing?" Harry cocked his head to the side as he searched for Gabriel in his head and got a confirmation. "It's a good thing because if it went the normal way, we might have died."

"This is...unexpected." Griphook informed him as he moved back to behind his desk. "The aura that surrounds you is pure white and radiates power; much different form a human aura and why we were forced to make sure that you were still yourself before we allowed access to your accounts. Does your split fragment have a name?"

Harry considered the goblin and felt Gabriel doing the same in the back of their mind. Now that he knew Gabriel was there, he could easily feel the disjointed fragment of himself there. It was like he'd been searching for a needle in a haystack and suddenly knew exactly where to find it; basically it made his head hurt trying to think about it.  _'Tell him,'_  Gabriel whispered in their head. _'He should know who he crosses if he betrays our secret.'_

"Gabriel," Harry spoke the name aloud for the first time and felt the rightness that the name gave him. "Our name is Gabriel."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Harry meets Gabriel, who is Harry but isn't Harry. Let me tell you, even my head hurt after writing this because really, talking to yourself was never meant to be quite so literal. Gabriel is also a little...nicer in the beginning of his and Harry's interactions but that's more because he isn't really Gabriel but Gabriel's memories. Harry is the one that's Gabriel and he'll begin acting redeveloping that personality that we all love soon enough, expect since he's spent so long as a human, he'll probably be less Trickster than he was when he was pretending to be Loki. Tamer but not too much.
> 
> For those who'll probably be like 'He told the Goblins? What?': Of course he did! The whole point of that was for the Goblins to find out if Harry was a risk to the Potter wealth, and therefore the integrity of Gringotts. They could see that he wasn't human but they've no idea what he is. It isn't like he shout I'm an Archangel a the top of his lungs, especially since Harry doesn't even really know what he is yet. He was a bit distracted by the whole voice in his head that's not actually a voice but his memories given consciousness after being split apart from him when he was killed. 'Gabriel' also starts acting more like canon at the end as this is the first time since he's been given conscioussness that he's had to interact with Harry. He'll be more in character in their conversations from now on.
> 
> Comments, questions, and just plain reviews welcome! I really want to know what you all think of this story!
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who are marveling at the sudden chapter increase...well, these chapters have already been posted on ff.net and until about noon today, my internet would only let me load three websites (gmail, google, and ff.net) and anything else was barred to me for some inexplicable reason. It suddenly started working out of nowhere and I was just like 'OMG YES!'.

Platform Nine and Three Quarters had both changed and not changed. With is new ability to see the energy of the world (including magic, apparently) that had resurfaced since finding Gabriel (who Harry refused to refer to as 'himself' because that just made his head hurt), Harry had found that a lot of places that once seemed familiar and rather normal to him were anything but. He could now pick out anything that was frequently introduced to magic from just a glance.

That didn't mean that he wasn't annoyed beyond belief at the headache that just looking around the platform gave him. There were so many people of magical origin crowded into the confined space and each one of them were glowing bright enough to light up a room. Frankly, it was like staring at the sun after a while and blue spots were becoming a norm for his vision.

Being held up at the bank had ended up being a blessing. Assured by the goblins that Harry would await there for them when they were finished with 'Family Business', the Weasley parents had gone ahead and begun shopping for his as well as their own, supplies. By the time Harry was done wtih his conversation with Gabriel, Mrs. Weasley was waiting in the lobby to head back to the Leaky Cauldron and Floo back to the Burrow with his new things.

She protested any and all money that he tried to hand her to pay back the expenses of his books.

Ron had informed him once they were safe in the redhead's room that Gilderoy Lockhart, their soon to be DADA teacher, was nothing but a pompous fraud that was holding a book signing. Harry winced as the encounter with Draco Malfoy's father was described to him and he had to laugh when he heard that Hagrid of all people had broken up the resulting fight. Arthur Weasley punching Lucius Malfoy in the face was one of the few moments that he would forever regret missing. If he's anything like Malfoy, Harry mused, then he probably deserved the punch and more.

' _No arguments here,'_  Gabriel said in their mind and Harry got the impression that the...whatever Gabriel was besides being him was laughing at the image Harry had conjured up. ' _Would've been priceless,'_  Gabriel sighed regretfully.

Getting to the platform, however, had been more difficult than it was the year before. Harry, who was closest to the barrier, had begun his sprint towards it only to collide heavily into a solid brick wall, his trolley spinning out of control as it too bounced off the solid barrier. The surprised yelp that he admitted attracted the attention of the passerbyes nearby as well as the waiting Weasley family. Luckily, Ron had noticed the collision in time to abort his own sprint at the barrier and Harry couldn't have been more grateful that he wouldn't have to deal with the bruises that experience would leave him with.

"How odd," Mrs. Weasley had said as she knocked her hand against the solid wall. "It looks like we'll have to Apparate them in," she had said to a gim Mr. Weasley.

"I'll let the Ministry know when I go into work today," Mr. Weasley had promised in attempt to sooth his wife's rising ire. "I'm sure it's just a mistake."

Five minutes and the worst feeling of being crushed into a tube later and the Weasley's plus Harry had found themselves rushing to board the train on time which was were Harry was now, struggling to lift his trunk up the step of the train stairs. 'I forgot how hard this was,' he thought to himself in annoyance as the trunk refused to budge.

' _No upper body strength,'_  Gabriel agreed in his head. ' _We should work on that.'_

Harry ignored the...whatever Gabriel was and focused on slowly budging the increasingly more heavy trunk. He was almost afraid that the train would begin to leave before he had gotten the trunk on when the Twins, once again, came to his rescue and helped him heave the trunk up the steps just in time for the train to begin moving. "Thanks," Harry gasped, out of breath from the effort it had taken to move his trunk.

"It wasn't a problem," Fred told him, smirking.

"Couldn't have the train leaving without you," George agreed, mirroring his brother.

"Mum would kill us it we did!" they chorused together, grinning brightly.

' _I like them,'_  Gabriel said and Harry got the impression that he was grinning. He wasn't sure if Gabriel's appreciation of the Twins was a good thing and decided not to dwell on it. He'd find out eventually, after all.

"Ron's in the last compartment," Fred told him as he and George grabbed their own trunks. "He's probably wondering where you are."

"And we should find Lee," George said, addressing Fred more than Harry. "See ya later, Harry!" That said, the two disappeared from the cart to locate their own friends and Harry began tugging his trunk to the last compartment on his own.

'It's not nearly as heavy as it was before,' Harry commented as the trunk followed him easily down the ail of the train cart.

' _That's because you're dragging it instead of trying to lift it,'_ Gabriel told him seriously. ' _Gravity was working against you.'_

'Gravity?' Harry asked as he slid open the compartment door.

Gabriel didn't answer and Harry turned his attention to Ron as the redhead helped him heaft the trunk into the netting above their seats. "What did you put in there?!" his friend asked, eyes wide and gasping. "Rocks?"

"Lockhart's books," Harry answered instead, grinning at Ron's groan of pain.

They continued talking from there, speculating on how Lockhart's class would go and wondering where Hermione was until eventually, Harry found himself dozing off to the rhythm of the train.

* * *

Harry had been asleep for ten minutes when Hermione finally pulled open the compartment door. "There you both are!" she said, lowering her voice when Ron motioned to their sleeping friend.

"We had some trouble getting on the platform," the redhead explained to the bushy haired girl. "The barrier just up and closed! Mum and dad had to apparate us here and we had only just managed to get on the train when it began leaving!"

"Really?" Hermione asked in surprise. "According to Hogwarts: A History, the barrier isn't supposed to close until a full hour after the train's left! I wonder why it closed now?"

"No clue but Harry's going to have some impressive bruises tomorrow from running into it," Ron winced in sympathy. "I reckon he knocked his head something fierce with how fast he was going. I half thought mum was going to go down to the Ministry right then and there and give them a piece of her mind."

Hermione gave him a suspicious look but conceded that the redhead would know his mother better than she did. "I don't think I've ever seen him sleep before," she noted as Harry curled into himself and fought back a coo at how he looked in his baggy robes.

"I don't think he slept well last night," Ron told her. "He was up before I was and he was still awake when I went to bed. I think the ghoul was keeping him up."

"Ghoul?" Hermione asked, intrigued. "You have a ghoul in your house?"

"Yup," Ron told her, pleased that he knew something she didn't. "He lives in our attic; moans something fierce at night and rattles his chains almost non-stop. I guess I'm just used to it since it's always been there."

The conversation progress from there, the two friends being sure to keep their voices down as to not upset the sleeping Harry.

* * *

Harry had, indeed, not slept well the night before but unlike what Ron thought, it wasn't the ghoul that had been keeping him up.

Ever since the goblins had performed the ritual that had let him meet Gabriel, Harry had found himself back in his mindscape each time he fell asleep. The blinding white of his mind had ceased to bother him and he found that he enjoyed talking to Gabriel instead of dreaming. He was learning a lot about what he was even though he'd yet to get a name for it.

"We don't really dream," Gabriel had told him on the first night that he had found himself back in the barren room thing. "Even before you found me, most of your dreams had memories mixed inside them. That flying motorbike actually happened and the green light was from Voldemort. That's why some of your dreams were so strange."

"Oh," Harry had said, fascinated with the concept. It also explained why when he did dream, he tended to forget them when he woke up.

This time, however, Harry didn't find himself in his mind with Gabriel. This time, Harry found himself on a battlefield; spells were flying all around him, crashing into his companions and lighting up the dark field they were in with blazes of color from all directions.

_His name was Ivan and he was twenty-two. This was his first battle in the fight against Grindelwald and he was determined to do his part to stop the Dark Lord and his army from advancing on the borders of Great Britain any further than he already had. As a newly minted Auror, it was his job to protect the people of Britain from the tyrannical rule of their would be conqueror._

_His wand was nearly glowing from the myriad of spells he was firing at the enemy. German wizard after German wizard fell under the strength of his spells and Ivan was delighted as he dodged the return fire; he would be damned before he let any of these Nazi bastards take him down!_

_Grindelwald was also there, firing spell after spell at his own opponent, Albus Dumbledore. The Dark Lord had, had the audacity to attack Hogsmeade and Hogwarts itself and he was paying for that arrogance as the Deputy Headmaster matched him spell for spell. Ivan had never really seen his old Transfiguration teacher look so grim and had never gotten the impression that the man was anything more than a kindly old teacher but the power he was putting into battling Grindelwald was awe inspiring._

_"Ive! On your right!" Lorane yelled from his left. Ivan dodged the oncoming spell and sent a blasting curse at its castor, nearly laughing as the scum was sent flying backwards into Honeydukes. It served him right!_

_Spell after spell was traded from friend and foe alike as the once small, kindly looking village turned into a bloodbath of fallen wizards and witches. The battle seemed to rage for hours, neither side wanting to admit defeat before there was a triumphant yell from the dueling Dark Lord and Deputy Headmaster._

_Grindelwald was winning, his spells threatening to overcome Dumbledore's in shear power. Dumbledore himself had proved to be one of the most powerful wizards in Britain and to see him being slowly overpowered was terrifying._

_Ivan was an Auror, one of the warrior wizards sworn to protect the people of Great Britain at any and all costs. So in a split decision that would cost him his life, Ivan pointed his wand at the distracted Grindelwald and fired a repulso._

_He lived long enough to watch as Dumbledore won the battle with his opponent, disarming the downed Dark Lord with a vengeance._

_In his effort to protect the world that he had sworn himself too, Ivan Rooth had been his with a severing curse and bled out on the ground of Hogsmeade while his side slowly won the battle against Grindelwald's Reapers._

_He died with a smile on his face._

The sound of a loud train whistle jerked Harry from his dream and back to real life, eyes wide and pulse racing as he woke to a worried Hermione towering over him.

"Are you alright Harry?" she asked, Ron looking just as concerned from the seat opposite of him. Harry pushed back the memories of death, battle, and victory to focus on the present and he smiled.

"Never better," he told her, grinning. She gave him a suspicious look before nodding in acceptance when she couldn't find a lie.

And he wasn't lying. He had died in defense of the world that he had loved. To see that his death had mattered and that the Wizarding World still thrived, years after the fact, filled him with a sense of accomplishment that he'd never felt before.

Harry was also pleased for an entirely different reason. The dream had been a memory, no matter how gruesome, and that could only mean one thing: He was regaining his memories.

And from the pleased hum of Gabriel in his head, he could tell that he wasn't the only one that was happy with this new turn of events.

* * *

Hogwarts was different than he remembered it. The building glowed, just like Gringotts and the Burrow, but it wasn't a shimmering rainbow or a blinding white; Hogwarts glowed a golden hue that stood out proudly against the night sky and reached out to both the carriages that brought the returning students and the boats the brought in the new first years. It was like the castle, unlike the bank and the Burrow, was aware of each and every new child that entered her halls.

And Harry couldn't do anything but look at the golden aura in awes as it mingled with his magic when he walked into her halls for the second time in his life.

 _'Sentient,'_  Gabriel whispered in his mind. ' _She's sentient.'_

Harry wasn't positive what 'sentient' meant and filed the information away to be looked at another time. Maybe when one of his other memories returned to him he would better understand what his counterpart was saying, at least, Harry hoped so. He also hoped that he would gain another memory when he went to sleep that night; he didn't think that it was a fluke but years at the Dursley's had taught him not to get his hopes up too high lest they be crushed when it inevitably fell through.

 _'Not just the bastards,'_  Gabriel muttered angrily and Harry got the feeling that he'd learned that lesson more times than he could currently remember. His head throbbed angrily at that thought.

'Being two people is hardis hard,' Harry told Gabriel with a grimace. He received a hum of agreement in return and the impression that Harry wasn't the only suffering from multiple identities.

 _'It'll get better,'_  Gabriel assured him and Harry couldn't help but think that he was lying.

'Great,' he thought in annoyance as he took a seat at the Gryffindor table next to Ron and across from Hermione. 'Now we're lying to ourselves.'

He didn't know whether or not to be thankful that he was soon distracted by the sorting of the new first years.

The new Gryffindor's seemed to be larger in number than Harry's own class was and Harry could see a familiar redheaded girl amongst the crowd at the end of the table. Ron, the Twins, and Percy all moved to congratulate their sister as food appeared on the table and Harry turned to Hermione to hear about her summer.

Gabriel remained suspiciously quiet throughout the whole thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Harry's having problems with the dual identity and now has to deal with his reawakening memories! Isn't that going to be an interesting year? I feel kind of bad for him but since 'Gabriel' is currently his memories given form, talking to him was bound to trigger something in Harry's psyche.
> 
> Which means he's got to reconcile more than just his identity as Gabriel with himself now, poor thing (grins innocently). Being back at Hogwarts is going to make things much more interesting, especially now that he's missing most of the clues that Canon!Harry had, what with Gringotts taking longer than it did in canon.
> 
> Gabriel!Harry meets Lockhart for the first time! I wonder how that's going to turn out? *cackles*


	7. Chapter 7

They had Herbology first thing the next morning. Professor Sprout was one of the kinder teachers and she let it show in her cheery demeanor the entire morning.

They were working in greenhouse three for the first time, having only been allowed in greenhouse one the year before. Greenhouse three was different than the greenhouse one in that it housed the more dangerous plant. It would be their first introduction to magically sentient plants.

The Mandrake they were repotting that day did not disappoint and many of the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors found themselves sporting angry headaches and ringing ears by the end of class and only Neville Longbottom seemed to be pleased with how the class had gone that day. Harry found himself agreeing with his classmates that if he ever saw a Mandrake again, it would be too soon.

' _Loud little plants,'_  Gabriel complained in his mind. It seemed that Gabriel was just as affected by the screams of the small plants as he, himself, was.

'At least they're repotted now,' he told them both. It was a nice thought, not having to deal with the loud baby plants ever again and Harry held onto that small fact as hard as he could and followed Ron and Hermione as they all headed up to the Transfiguration classroom for their second class of the day.

Transfiguration was the same that it had always been, although their dirty attire had gotten a disapproving sniff from Professor McGonagall as they walked into the classroom. It seemed that she was well aware of the class they had just come from because unlike any other time they had shown up looking anything other than decent, the professor didn't say anything. It seemed forgoing changing for being on time wasn't something that she wanted to discourage even if they were leaving dirt everywhere.

They were working on turning a beetle into a button and it was the first time they were working with live animals in their Transfiguration career. Harry was having a bit of difficulty recalling everything he had learned last year, what with the new influx of memories from past lives cluttering the forefront of his mind.

_'Visualize,'_  Gabriel suggested. _'Picture a button in your head while you cast.'_

His counterpart had never given him advice on performing magic before so Harry decided to listen. Visualizing a button (blue with two round holes in the middle of it) he pointed his wand at the button and said the incantation.

"Wow mate!" Ron said beside him and Harry opened his eyes to see that his beetle had indeed turned into a blue button. "How'd you change the color?" the redhead asked as he attempted to turn the spell on his own beetle. Harry wasn't all that surprised when it didn't work.

"Indeed," Professor McGonagall said from behind him, causing Harry to jump in shock. "Ten points to Gryffindor and work on changing it back for the rest of class," she told him with a smile before walking away to observe another student.

Ron and Harry both watched her in shock, having never seen her act like that to Harry before. "Weird," the redhead muttered before turning to glare at his own button.

"Picture a button," Harry suggested to him. "I was thinking about a blue one that fell off of Aunt Petunia's blouse."

Ron looked at him in contemplation before turning back to his beetle once more. By the end of class, Ron had turned the beetle into a shiny black button and Harry had ended up with a blue beetle. McGonagall's lips had quirked up in amusement at the blue beetle on the desk as the class was dismissed for lunch.

Lunch was a welcome reprieve from classes and they talked animatedly as Hermione showed them her perfect coat buttons from Transfiguration. "That's strange," Ron commented as they entered the great hall and headed to the Gryffindor table.

"What's weird?" Hermione asked, sitting across from them so she could better hear them both.

"McGonagall-" Ron was cut off before he could continue.

"Professor McGonagall," Hermione interrupted with an exasperated sigh.

"Right," Ron said, waving off the correction. "She had Harry work on changing the button back into a beetle when he got it right."

Hermione nodded. "She had me work on it too but none of my buttons seemed to go back. I think there's a trick to it that I just haven't found yet," she told them, the expression on her face showing determination to figure out what she was doing wrong.

"Really?" Harry and Ron both asked, surprised. Ron looked at Harry in contemplation. "Harry here got it back to a beetle but it was still blue," the redhead told her at her questioning look.

Hermione's face twisted in surprise before she gave him a considering look. "I wonder what we did differently?" she mused and just from looking at her face, Harry could tell that he was eventually going to be drilled on every single step that he took to get the button back to beetle form (if not beetle color). "The button I was working on turned black but I couldn't manage to make it a beetle. Maybe if we combine techniques?" she wondered aloud.

It was nice, Harry decided as they promised Ron to help him after they had figured it out, to have something in common with Hermione. The year before had mostly been Hermione nagging at them to do their homework and correcting any mistakes that they made. Harry had thought that she liked being smarter than them yet now, as she engaged him in conversation on what they had learned in Herbology, Harry could see that it wasn't being smarter that she liked but being able to help them.

Homework had never really mattered to him before; the Dursley's didn't care about how well he did, only if he did better than Dudley. He'd learned early on that doing well in school only got him accused of cheating and thrown into the cupboard. It didn't even occur to him that now that he was at Hogwarts, he didn't need to stunt his own work. He had carried over the habit from his primary school to Hogwarts with him without even realizing it.

_'Stupid bastards!'_  Gabriel growled in his head. _'When we get back to full power, I smell retribution in their futures!'_

Harry didn't argue.

"So what do we have next?" Ron asked around a mouthful of food.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," Hermione said at once, not even glancing at the schedule she had on top of her school things.

"Why," Ron asked, seizing her schedule., "have you outlined Lockhart's class in little hearts?"

Hermione blushed and Harry felt his eyes narrow at the schedule. _'He tries anything and we smite him,'_  Gabriel snarled in his head and Harry felt foreign power just underneath his skin. It began to burn before it was quickly snatched back.

_'Sorry,'_  Gabriel told him sheepishly.  _'Our body can't handle that kind of Grace just yet. I'll have to better control it when our tempers rise.'_

Harry had indeed reacted with just as much anger as his counterpart and he assumed that was why the 'Grace', as Gabriel called it, had acted up. 'I'll try not to loose my temper as much,' he said by way of an apology. It was just as much his fault that the Grace had reacted as it was his counterparts.

Either way, Lockhart better stay away from Hermione if he knew what was good for him.

* * *

The class filed into the defense room in a noise of mutterings and laughter, all looking forward to seeing how the new Defense teacher would be handling this class after having had to deal with Quirrell the year before. Once the whole class was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat to gather their attention.

Harry's first impression of Gilderoy Lockhart was that the man was full of himself. The entire defense room was decorated with different pictures of himself and Lockhart was actually winking at them! "Me," he said, pointing a portrait, winking once more. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, third class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award-but I don't talk about that."

' _Wasn't he_ just _talking about it?!'_  Gabriel asked in disbelief.  _'Just who hired this guy?!'_

'Professor Dumbledore did,' Harry answered glumly. They were going to have to deal with this guy the entire year? What was their Headmaster thinking?

"You have thirty minutes! Start-Now!" the wannabe Professor told them happily. Harry blinked and looked down to see a quiz in front of him.

'He's joking, right?' Harry asked Gabriel as he read the first question.

_1\. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?_

_'I don't think he is,'_  Gabriel said with a groan.  _'Just guess and get this over with!'_

Harry did just that, writing down the first answer that popped into his mind before turning the test over as quickly as he could. Ron seemed to have done much the same as the redhead was already glaring evilly at the paper as if it had done something unforgivable.

Soon all the test were being picked up by the pounce (he didn't deserve the title of 'Professor') and Lockhart began talking again.

For his own continued sanity, Harry tuned the man out and focused on the prattling of Gabriel instead. It seemed that Gabriel had decided to list everything that was wrong with the man to entertain them while this class progressed. Harry was already mentally promising to check out a defense book from the library to read during this class because he honestly didn't trust himself to keep from calling the man a fraud to his face if he was forced to deal with him weekly.

He really should have been paying attention. It was sheer luck that he'd only taken out a quill and ink bottle from his bag because while he had been listening to Gabriel and trying to figure out which defense book to read during this class, Lockhart had pulled out a covered cage and had started talking again.

And in the most stupid of all moves, the idiot, as he would now be forever known as, released a full cage of cornish pixies on the unsuspecting students.

Chaos didn't describe the amount of damage and carnage that filled the room. Harry took one look at the rather unhappy pixies (not that he blamed them, after having been locked in a cage for who knew how long), grabbed his bag, and darted for the door with Ron on his heels.

Hermione, bless her, stayed behind to help re-cage the chaotic pixies. Harry didn't envy her one bit and it wasn't until they were halfway to Gryffindor Tower that Ron noticed something off with his friend.

"Mate," Ron began, stopping Harry dead in his tracks. "I think you've got some passengers.." He sounded vaguely horrified and looked a bit pale as he looked at a spot on Harry's robes.

Harry blinked and looked at his robe pocket, where Ron's eyes were currently focused. Sure enough, two small heads turned up to look at him, large blues eyes standing out against their pale blue skin. It seemed that he hadn't escaped quickly enough from the classroom and two pixies had decided that his pocket would make a wonderful resting place.

_'They're cute,'_  Gabriel noted in surprise.

'They just destroyed a classroom!' Harry replied in disbelief.

Gabriel was silent for a moment. _'Like I said,'_  Harry could  _hear_  the smirk.  _'Cute.'_

"You can stay," he said, addressing both pixies as Gabriel asked a vague  _'Can we keep them?'_  in the back of his head. "If you promise not to destroy anything in the Tower."

Two devilish grins answered his stipulation and Harry shrugged at Ron's 'are you crazy?!' look.

That was how Harry ended up with two pixies living in his pockets and Gilderoy Lockhart became his least favorite person in the world. Whoever said first days were boring had never gone to Hogwarts, Harry thought with a sigh.

* * *

The next few days were spent going to classes and dodging Lockhart whenever he appeared in the hallways. The man had gotten it into his head that Harry, being the Boy-Who-Lived ('Who came up with that name?' Gabriel complained in disgust) would be the perfect apprentice for the blond hair pompous ass.

He'd even hidden behind a shocked Draco Malfoy when he saw the man coming once. The blond Malfoy had turned on him as soon as the Professor was out of sight in glee.

"Hiding from teachers, now Potter? What did you do?" the pounce asked gleefully.

Harry looked at the fellow second year who had attempted to make his life hell last year and responded, "Lived," before walking away quickly, leaving the stunned Slytherin behind.

Quite frankly, after Voldemort appearing at the end of last year. Draco Malfoy wasn't nearly as much as an annoyance as he was earlier in the year before. It just wasn't worth it to keep up the childish rivalry. It struck Harry, as he thought about it, that just a few months before Harry would have sooner cut off his hand then hide behind Malfoy for anything.

_'It's the returning memories,'_  Gabriel explained as he listened to Harry's thoughts.  _'You now have the complete memories of a twenty year old wizard and are starting the memories of a forty year old police officer; your mind has begun to mature to deal with all of the information.'_

Putting it that way made sense, Harry thought as he headed to Charms.

The turning point of the week was when he was woken up from a rather boring dream (apparently patrolling was more dull than one would think)by Oliver Wood, early on a Saturday morning.

"Whassamatter?" he mumbled half coherently. Gabriel grumbled in the back of their mind, upset at having been awoken far too early.

"Quidditch practice!" Wood told him. "Come on!"

Harry looked at the window and saw that there was only a faint glow coming from the outside world as the sun strained to rise for another day. Gabriel let out a mix between a growl and a moan at the realization of what time it must be. "Oliver," Harry moaned from his pillow. "It's the crack of dawn!"

"Exactly!" Oliver responded. Harry considered Gabriel's suggestion of strangling the oblivious Quidditch captain for a moment. "It's part of our new training program. Come on, grab your broom and let's go. None of the other teams have started training yet; we're going to be first off the mark this year-"

Hitting Oliver in the face with a pillow before beginning to search quietly for his Quidditch gear was much more satisfying than he had thought it would be.

"Good man," Oliver told him, enthusiastically. "Can't be spouting off our plans just anywhere!"

_'Are you sure that he's not crazy?'_  Gabriel wondered.

'Nope.' Harry didn't even have to hesitate before responding. Really, who gets up at dawn to train for Quidditch?

His question was answered as he got downstairs and saw everyone from the Quidditch team already up and dressed, brooms in hand and glares centered on Oliver. Surprisingly, the Gryffindor team wasn't the only ones awake; sitting happily on one of the common room chairs was a first year that he'd seen in the hallways a few time.

"Hi!" the first year chirped at the sight of him. "I'm Colin Creevey and of course, everyone knows who you are! Do you mind if I take a picture? Da's a milkman and he was ever so surprised when I got my letter so I promised to take pictures of everything important while I was here and send them to him-"

The introduction went on and on and on until Harry was left blinded by the bright flash of a camera. Blinking spots out of his eyes, he watched as the first year babbled a thank you before disappearing off to the dorm.

"That was...odd," Harry decided and the rest of the Quidditch team, also blinded by the flash, nodded in agreement.

Besides the strange encounter with the younger Gryffindor, Quidditch practice went as well as it could have gone, being at the crack of dawn. Harry ended up joined Fred in dreamland halfway through the explanation of diagrams that Wood was giving.

Being shaken awake by Angelina, who looked more amused than annoyed at being the pillow of two of her teammates, Harry noted that Oliver was giving an impassioned speech about winning the Quidditch cup this year. Gabriel seemed fascinated by the speech and the emphasis that Oliver was putting on the strategy and hopeful victory of a game.  _'I've seen wars fought with less strategy than this!'_  Gabriel marveled in disbelief. _'Has anyone ever told this guy that this is a game?'_

'I don't think he cares,' Harry told the irate...ugh, he really needed to get around to asking Gabriel just exactly what he was. Harry didn't think he could keep calling 'the counterpart' or 'the insane voice in his head' for all the much longer.

Harry readied his Nimbus for takeoff as the Gryffindor team soared into the sky. Ron and Hermione were sitting in the stands of the pitch, one reading and the other looking disbelieving that they were still going, breakfast in one hand. Harry's stomach growled in jealousy at the delicious looking food and the first thing he was going to do after taking a nice shower and changing was grill Fred and George for the location of the kitchen.

They'd barely just started practice when the Slytherin's showed up in full gear, smirking at them. He was honestly afraid that Oliver was going to murder Flint as the irate Gryffindor Quidditch Captain began shouting at the smirking Slytherin.

Harry was just tuning it out until he caught the reason for the pitch take over. _'Snape's a bastard,'_  Gabriel grumbled. _'I can't believe they let someone like that teach here!'_

Harry didn't argue with Gabriel's assessment and began scanning to crowd for the so called 'new seeker'. With the way that the Slytherin's were holding the new brooms, Harry wasn't all that surprised to see that Draco Malfoy sneering and preening in new Quidditch gear. Gabriel was even less surprised and only muttered under his breath about bribery and petty twelve year olds.

Hermione and Ron had made their way down from the stands to see what the fighting was and Draco took that as a sign to begin rubbing in the fact that Slytherin had new brooms as well as how he had made seeker. That was when the trouble really started.

"Well at least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in," Hermione finally interject angrily. Harry was surprised as his muggleborn friend wasn't usually one for getting involved in confrontations. "They got in on pure talent!"

Draco's face turned a faint red. "No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood!" he spat at her and all around him the Gryffindor team erupted into violence.

Harry didn't know what 'mudblood' meant but he did know that it must have been horrible with the way Fred and George were both trying to attack the blond ferret. Any feeling of apathy that Harry had felt when encountering the blond earlier faded away and Gabriel was hissing and spitting like an offended cat in his head.

Anger boiled in his mind and the next thing he knew, Draco was flying backwards across the pitch. Silence encompassed the two teams as they turned to stare at the downed blond in shock, no one having drawn any wands, having left them with their clothes in the dressing room so they wouldn't chance getting them broken.

"Oops," Harry muttered, blinking and drew the attention of the surrounding people, blushing at Hermione's uncertain grateful look. Fred and George looked at him incredulously before they began roaring in laughter but Oliver looked concerned.

"How did you do that?" the Quidditch Captain asked as the Slytherin's went to help Draco up.

Harry knew for a fact that Gabriel had kept their Grace back and the presence under his skin hadn't felt the same as the burning power of Grace did. He shrugged, confused as to how he had managed to send Malfoy flying just as much as everyone else was. "I was angry?" he asked, hesitant to say anything concrete on the matter as, besides knowing that he had caused it, Harry was in the dark about the 'how' involved with sending Malfoy flying.

"Accidental magic?" Oliver mumbled as the team began to trudge back to the dressing room. It was pointless to keep arguing and Oliver already planned to send a complaint to Professor McGonagall about the Slytherin's and Malfoy's foul language. "I didn't think that you could do that after first year. Best talk to Professor McGonagall when we get back up to the school," he advised. "I'll go with you. No doubt the Slytherin's are going to spin some tale to feed back to Snape and I for one want McGonagall on our side when he tries anything."

Harry didn't argue.  _'The look on his face was priceless!'_  Gabriel cackled in the back of Harry's mind.

The twelve year old once again didn't argue, smirking slightly as he remembered.

Perhaps getting up at dawn had its perks after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, things are getting somewhere! Gabriel and Harry have encountered their first problem: the inability to access their Grace without risking burning themselves up. Harry's also finding himself becoming increasingly more mature as he gains more and more memories of his past lives as a human however, he still only has the emotional capacity of a twelve year old boy, as shown by how he reacted towards the slight against Hermione.
> 
> 'Gabriel' is beginning to become more and more aware as Harry regains memories and actively talks to him.
> 
> Any questions on anything going on? Feel free to ask them and I'll try my best to clarify!


	8. Chapter 8

Professor McGonagall wasn't pleased when she was told what happened at the pitch. "The nerve of that man!" she growled under her breath. "And to think that Mr. Malfoy would even  _consider_  uttering that...that!" she couldn't seem to put her anger into words and was storming out of her office in a furious rage as Harry and Oliver strained to keep up. "I'll be having words with him about this!"

Harry had never seen the Professor in such a rage before and he couldn't help but wonder what 'mudblood' even meant. Glancing at the simmering rage that was Professor McGonagall, he decided to hold off on asking until he and Oliver were alone.

They arrived at the potions classroom in only a few minutes after leaving the Transfiguration Professor's office, having nearly sprint the entire way after the rather fast moving professor. Harry almost felt bad for Snape.

Almost.

"Severus Snape!" she shrieked as she burst into the classroom. It was lucky that it wasn't a weekday as the potion's classroom was empty of everyone but the four of them. "I don't care what you think your team needs the pitch for, you are not above the assigned rule Severus! Your team has to book the pitch like everyone else!"

Snape made to say something but was interrupted. "Don't think I don't know that you waited for the Gryffindor team to be practicing," she hissed. "Try-outs for Slytherin were done four days ago and the pitch was perfectly free then! Your team can have the pitch for today but they have forfeited their spot tomorrow!"

Snape's eyes narrowed and Harry stared wide-eyed at the steaming Professors. "Very well," the man spat, dark eyes flashing in anger. "If that's all?"

"No that is not all!" McGonagall snapped, still furious. "Mr. Malfoy is to be informed that he has detention with me for the next week!"

It soon became obvious that someone from the Slytherin team had already spoke to the Potion's Professor. "And what of Potter? Surely he'll be punished for cursing a fellow student," the man sneered at Harry as he spoke.

"I highly doubt that a burst of Accidental Magic can be considered 'cursing'," the Transfiguration Professor sniffed in disdain. "He has however been docked ten points and assigned lessons to better control his magic with me after school for as long as it takes to make sure such an outburst doesn't happen again."

Seeing as he could have ended up scrubbing cauldrons for the next week instead, Harry didn't protest and even Oliver didn't say a word against it. Professor McGonagall wasn't anything if not fair.

"Mr. Malfoy says differently," Snape didn't seem to want to let this go.

"I suppose he also says that the Gryffindor team plus Ms. Ganger and Mr. Weasley didn't hear him call Ms. Ganger a 'filthy little mudblood'?" McGonagall asked, her voice easily showing that she already knew the answer. From the enraged twisting of Snape's face, Draco had indeed left that out of the story he had told.

"Make that two week," Snape spat, eyes dancing in anger. "I will also...speak to Mr. Malfoy about his behavior."

The two students watched the swift change in the potion's master with shock. It was unheard of to have Snape adding onto a Slytherin detention!

"You both are dismissed," Professor McGonagall said as she turned to them. "I expect you in my office after dinner until this problem is solved," she added, looking at Harry who nodded his acceptance.

It could have been worse, he thought to himself as he and Oliver practically ran from the classroom.

* * *

Quidditch practices resumed the next day, though this time the team made sure to go to bed early the night before so that they could be properly awake the next day. Life at Hogwarts went on as normal and October arrived quicker than they were ready for.

October, sadly, meant that the weather turned from warm and sunny to rainy and muddy like someone had flipped a switch. Oliver, determined to make sure that they were prepared for all sorts of weather, increased practices to everyday and most days, the team came in soaked to the bone and muddy from walking up the lawn from the Quidditch pitch. Harry wasn't surprised when after a week of coming in soaking wet, he ended up sick.

Gabriel, however, was. ' _Why does it feel like we went a few rounds with a pissed off vampire?'_ Gabriel asked, whimpering as their body ached and their head throbbed.

'It's called having a cold,' Harry answered as he sneezed. Professor McGonagall had excused him from his after dinner lesson on controlling his magic after he showed up with an impressive amount of tissue in his pockets and a bright red nose. "Go get some rest," she had advised as she dismissed him. "Madame Pomfrey can give you some Pepper-Up in the morning for your classes."

Oliver had even let up on him with practices after Fred and George pointed out that he looked like a strong wind would blow him over at the moment. It wasn't all the surprising to find out that Angelina and Katie had also caught a cold from the long practices and since three of his players were out for the count, Oliver had no choice but to postpone anymore practices until they were all back on their feet.

' _Well I don't like it!'_  Gabriel moaned as they headed inside in an attempt to get to their next class quicker after taking an outside shortcut. Luckily it wasn't raining so besides the mud on his shoes, Harry was still in perfect condition for class.

His internal conversation was interrupted by Sir Nicholas muttering in the hallway that he was heading down with what looked like a letter in his hand. "...don't fulfil their requirements...half and inch if that!" the ghost grumbled, glaring at the letter as if it had physically offended him.

"Hello Nick," Harry greeted the ghost as Gabriel perked up in the back of their mind. 'I didn't know there were ghosts here,' he commented in curiosity.

Nicholas froze as he turned to look at Harry, he already clear white face paling until Harry wasn't sure he could make out any of the features that were usually ever present. "Hello Harry," Nicholas said, looking at him cautiously.

_'He can tell I'm here!'_  Gabriel sounded delighted. They had already known that the goblins could tell that Harry was different than before but to have someone from Hogwarts identify it immediately just cemented the fact that certain beings were able to comprehend the change that Gabriel had initiated in Harry.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked the ghost, ignoring Gabriel's delight as his cold made itself known again. He sneezed, his glasses fogging up at the sudden warm breath and his eyes watering with the force.

"Yes, yes," Nicholas waved the question off and peered closer at him. "You don't seem to be doing all that well, yourself, however. I must say, I do not miss cold season all the much."

Harry hummed, nodding. "I can't say I would miss it either," he told the ghost with a grimace. "My head is throbbing something fierce."

Nick relaxed into the conversation and finally began explaining about the letter. It seemed he was disgruntled at not being able to join the Headless Hunt and Harry had to say, getting hit with an ax forty-five times and still having just enough skin on your neck to hold it on painted a rather gruesome picture of how the ghost had died. 'Really, his head is nearly completely cut off,' Gabriel said as he listened. 'I don't understand why they just don't let him join. Is it really a big deal that his head didn't fall off all the way?'

Harry didn't comment as he was distracted at that moment by a soft meow coming from where his feet were. Looking down to see Mrs. Norris looking up at him accusingly, Harry let out a put upon sigh and knew that Filch wouldn't be that far behind.

"Best get out of here," Nick advised as he looked a Mrs. Norris. "Filch is in a rotten mood."

Filch could be in a good mood? Harry wondered as the caretaker seemingly warped into the corridor as if whatever bond he held with the cat had summoned him. One look at Harry and then the mud that was on the corridor floor (which didn't even come from just him!) and Harry found himself being dragged to the caretakers office as the man ranted about frog eggs and unruly children.

Really, the man was overreacting! It was just a bit of mud and most of it wasn't even from Harry who hadn't moved all the far before he had begun talking with Nick. Filch didn't see it that way and complained about the extra scrubbing that the mud would cause him as if it was Harry's fault that an hour had now been added to the caretaker's work.

_'Who pissed in this guys oatmeal?'_  Gabriel grouched as Filch began filling out the report form.  _'I doubt that a bit of mud is all that much work when he can just wave his wand and have be gone.'_

Harry agreed silently as a loud bang came from upstairs. Filch growled in anger, "Peeves! I'll get you this time!" The caretaker seemingly forgot about him and was gone in an instant, report still sitting innocently on his desk half-filled out.

_'Quick, now's our chance!'_  Gabriel told him.  _'Get out of here!'_

Harry was about to do that when a pamphlet caught his eyes. It was glossy and purple with silver lettering that stood out on the drab desk that took up most of the room in Filch's office. 'Kwikspell,' Harry read the silver lettering silently. 'A Correspondence Course in Beginner's Magic.' He quickly read over the front side, bringing the pamphlet closer to him so he could read it better. Harry flipped it open, reading the introduction before moving on to lesson one, fascinated at how it described different ways that some people held their wands and the ways it could affect their casting.

So engrossed as he was in reading it, Harry didn't notice when Flich came back and gave a pained grunt at seeing Harry with the glossy purple instruction manual. "You-you...my private mail! Not that its mine of course but..."

Harry stared at Filch as he wrung his hands around his wrists, baffled. "Um," he said, eyes wide. He honestly couldn't tell if the man was mad beyond belief or embarrassed and as he began threatening him about telling something clicked in Harry's mind. "You're a squib!" he realized and was horrified as he realized he'd said that aloud. Filch stopped his sentence in its tracks to glare at him.

"N-not that that's a problem!" he amended as Gabriel radiated horror in his mind from his earlier snide comments. It seemed that his counterpart was realizing just how much work Filch would have to do to keep the castle clean without magic and how much work that mud had added to what was probably an already impressive work load. 'No wonder he always looks upset,' Harry thought to himself.

"Don't you going telling anyone, you hear me boy!" Filch snapped and went back to all the horrible things he would do to him if he found out that Harry had told anyone.

"I'm not going to tell!" Harry finally yelled over the threats before slamming a hand over his mouth in surprise at his outburst. Filch was similarly surprised Harry had never yelled in the caretaker's presence. He blushed scarlet as the grouchy man stared at him.

"I-I mean it isn't like it's problem!" Harry defended his reaction, eyes wide. "The castle's cleaner than Aunt Petunia's kitchen most of the time and the Headmaster wouldn't have hired you if it was a problem and I'm sorry about the mud, it didn't seem like a big deal and I didn't know-" Harry continued to babble off apologies as he waited for the oncoming blow that Filch was sure to throw.

_'Freaking Dursley's!'_  Gabriel grumbled as Harry's babbling continued.  _'Not all adults hit children for yelling and now we've got even more issues to work through!'_  His counterpart whined as Filch continued to stare at them in shock.  _'We should have just left when we could.'_

Harry didn't argue with that, also regretting staying around to read the Kwikspell pamphlet, no matter how interesting it had been. He never was good at talking to adults and from the way Filch was starting to look more and more incredulously at him, Harry didn't think that he'd ever get better at it.

_'We will,'_  Gabriel assured him.  _'It just takes some confidence, which you sorely lack but don't worry, we'll fix that!'_  Harry didn't know if he wanted to know what Gabriel meant by that and finally shut his mouth with an audible snap, glancing up at Filch from behind his fringe.

The man looked stunned at Harry's rambling and couldn't seem to close his mouth. Harry looked carefully placed the pamphlet on the nearly empty desk, babbled another apology, before darting behind that man and out the door.

That could have gone so much better, he noted absently and berated himself for his reaction to Filch catching him. It wasn't the caretaker would be allowed to hit him but the purple color he had been turning had reminded him a lot of Uncle Vernon.

Harry, being already a half an hour late for his next class, decided his head felt like it was going to explode and headed to the hospital wing instead. Being fussed over by Madame Pomfrey sound like a much better alternative than getting scolded by Professor Flitwick.

* * *

Filch avoided him like the plague after their strange encounter in his office and Harry couldn't find it in himself to be disappointed. Halloween was soon upon them and Harry forgot all about the strange incident, although he did thank Nick when he found out that the Gryffindor ghost was the one that got Peeves to knock down the Vanishing Cabinet.

Harry was looking forward to having a carefree Halloween Feast with his cold fully gone and no death threats yet this year. The Great Hall looked just as magnificent as it had the year before (minus trolls running around the castle) and Harry engrossed himself into the meal with the rest of the student body.

That was until a student came in screaming and crying, running up to Professor McGonagall and going on about a dead cat and blood near the girls bathroom. The students were quickly told to go back to their dorms early (for the second year in a row, Harry noted in sadness) as the teachers rushed out of the room with the girl in the lead.

So much for an uneventful Halloween, Harry thought as he followed the rest of his house back up to the Gryffindor Common Room.

Maybe Halloween was cursed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was a little skeptical about the scene with Filch but as much as Harry has matured, he still thinks the worst of adults and Filch is the most likely out of all the adults in Hogwarts to resort to physical violence. Before you all ask, no Vernon doesn't beat Harry. Just smacks him if he's very displeased which is less violent than in the beginning of the second book in canon where Petunia throws a frying pan at his head (not even joking, I was just like WTF? when I first read the second book and that happened.).
> 
> The scene with Snape was also something that I couldn't leave out. Snape may be one of my least favorite characters but after what happened when he called Lily a 'mudblood' in the flashback in the fifth book, I can't see him letting it slide that Draco was freely using the word. He is Draco's godfather after all.
> 
> So Harry's going to start coming out of his shell due to Gabriel's influence on him and Gabriel is also becoming more focused and involved with Harry even if they're still split from each other. They're having trouble reconciling both of their identities together so Harry'll be having more extreme reactions to things than he normally would.
> 
> There are some of you who think I'm sticking too close to canon and for that, I can't really apologize. Harry's still mostly Harry at this point in time and he's going to react to certain things about the same as canon Harry did. However, I'm going to start diverging even more from canon from this point on as certain events (like Nick's Deathday Party, for example) won't effect Gabriel!Harry as they did Canon Harry.


	9. Chapter 9

The news was all around the school by morning; Mrs. Norris had been petrified and her blood was used to write a morbid message on the wall: THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE.

The castle was alive with speculations on the chamber and what it could possibly contain; they even managed to get Binns to talk about it during History of Magic the next day and the story of Slytherin's secret chamber was all over the school by mid-morning and Hermione dragged them both to the library as soon as breakfast got out.

It was too bad that the book she was looking for, Hogwarts: A History, had all of its copies checked out and her own copy had been left at home in favor of Lockhart's books.

"Should've just left them," Ron mumbled to him as Hermione ranted about the missing copies. "It's not like it would've made that much of a difference."

That was beyond true. Two months into the school year and Lockhart's class consisted of him acting out scenes from his books, usually using Harry as the creature he was taking down. Gabriel was just as disgruntled about it as he was and, much to Hermione's disapproval, he tended to skip the class more often than not, taking refuge in the library where Madame Pince turned a blind eye to what he was doing (it seemed that Lockhart had attempted to tell her how to properly organize the library and she hadn't forgiven him the offense). While Harry was clueless as to what was going on in Lockhart's class he was learning more about defense than he had since coming to Hogwarts.

"I just can't figure out what Slytherin's monster is!" She fumed, sitting down at one of the library tables in defeat. "I can't find any creatures that petrify like what happened with Mrs. Norris!"

Harry had to admit that he wasn't having much luck in finding out anything about the monster, either. All the books on magical creatures agreed that petrification on the level that had happened with Mrs. Norris was impossible. That left only spells behind the cat's current state and the Professor's seemed sure that no student would be able to cast the powerful spells that would cause that effect. Harry just got the feeling that they were all missing something, something horribly important.

Gabriel wasn't any help in identifying the cause or the culprit. Harry's counterpart was adamant that they stay out of it and let the teachers handle the situation. Being at low power and not even complete in sync yet left them with a glaring weakness that Gabriel didn't want to risk being exploited.

The problem was that Harry had a feeling that they'd be dragged into this mess whether they liked it or not and most of the time his feelings came true.

When they weren't in the library trying to solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets, Harry was down by Hagrid's cabin visiting Hope. The unicorn had been absent most of the year due to getting ready to give birth to three healthy unicorn foals and she had brought them to meet him now that they were strong enough to walk the distance.

Two of the foals were a beautiful pure white while the third foal took after both its parents and was spotted with gold. Harry found that the gold spotted unicorn was his favorite as he had warmed right up to Harry immediately.

"I'll call you Sol," he told the rather hyper foal before turning to the two watching foals. "You'll be Celestica and Mystica," he told the two, smiling as they seemed to approve the names. He wasn't sure what had prompted him to name them that but decided to just go with it as both Celestica and Mystica seemed pleased with their names.

Hope gently nudge Harry to her side and the twelve year old let out a content hum as Sol snuggled up to him, Celestica claiming his other side and Mystica deciding to use his legs as a pillow. ' _They're so cute!'_ Gabriel cooed in his head and Harry wondered if this meant that his counterpart wanted to keep them as well. Tinker and Havoc, the two pixies that had made themselves at home in Harry's pockets, were already enough trouble as it was and the only reason that Professor McGonagall hadn't demanded they go was the fact that the rest of Gryffindor Tower had adopted the two pixies as well and hadn't actually told her about them yet.

' _They haven't broken anything.'_  Gabriel countered, seeming pleased with something. ' _Well, not anything that belongs to Gryffindor anyways. Lockhart's stuff is fair game!'_

Something told him that he didn't want to know what the two scemeing pixies had done to the rather idiotic Defense , he leaned back against Hope's warm body and closed his eyes as a feeling of peace came over him.

He spent the next couple of hours dozing in and out of sleep, no worries keeping him stressed and awake, which was a nice change from normal. Hope and her three foals seemed just as content to lay there and even Gabriel hummed happily in the back of their mind. Harry didn't realize how much he had missed spending time with Hope before now and he silently promised himself not to let so much time pass before visiting her again.

* * *

Weeks passed without so much as another whisper about the Chamber of Secrets and the whole school was buzzing about who the culprit could have been. No one was taking the threat of the Chamber's "monster" seriously excepted for the teachers and Harry and his friends. It seemed that no one considered the fact that anything that could petrify a cat without being seen or leaving a trace could easily move onto students.

Harry himself hadn't considered that fact until Gabriel had pointed it out in their head. He was understandably worried that whoever had opened the Chamber and attacked Mrs. Norris had an agenda and the last time that someone in Hogwarts had an agenda, Harry ended up on the wrong side of Voldemort and had nearly died.

Harry, though, wasn't able to think much more about the Chamber or the secrets it held as the first Slythern-Gryffindor Qudditch match of the year arrived. Oliver was in a right tizzy, pushing up practices and demanding perfection from the players, saying that if they were going to beat Slytherin on their better brooms, they needed to think less and react more.

Gabriel agreed. 'Thinking your actions through slows you down,' he expalined at Harry's questioning prod. 'Muscles memory doesn't require thought and if you do it right enough, it becomes second nature to you.'

That sounded annoyingly logical but Harry remained that repeating was one thing and being forced to spend nearly as much time possible outside, no matter the weather, practicing the same move over and over was another.

"Slytherin's got better brooms," Wood began as the team gathered around for their pre-game speech. "No point denying it. But we've got better people on our brooms. We've trained harder than they have, we've been flying in all weathers and we're going to make them rue the day they let that little bit of slime Malfoy buy his way onto their team!" Chest heaving in emotion, Oliver turned to Harry. "It'll be down to you, Harry, to show them that a Seeker has to have something more than a rich father. Get that Snitch before Malfoy or die trying, Harry, because we've got to win today. We've got to!"

Harry gave him a solemn nod, eyes already planning out the best ways to shake Malfoy off his tail when they got on the field. Soon enough the team was making their way out to the pitch where the watching students erupted into cheers, only Slytherin booing their team. Oliver and Flint shook hands before readying themselves on their broom, the two opposing teams doing the same.

"On my whistle," Madam Hooch called out to them. "Three...two...one!"

The players were up in the air as soon as the whistle sounded, all of them moving to their practiced spots on instinct alone; just in time for one of the Slytherin Beaters to send a bludger hurtling towards one of the Gryffindor chasers only to be blocked by one of the Twins taking point on her, just as Oliver had, had them practice for the past month.

Harry didn't really have all that much to do until he located the Snitch so he just hoved near the start off point.

"All right there, Scarhead?" Malfoy yelled as he darted back and forth beneath him, probably trying to show off the speed of his broom. Harry ignored him as he swerved to the side to avoid a bludger that was heading straight for him. It was such a close near miss that Harry could have sworn he felt the bludger ruffle his hair as it passed.

"Close one, Harry!" George called as he sped past him, bat ready to knock the bludger back towards a Slytherin. Harry saw George give the bludger a hard whack in the direction of Adrian Pucey and was glad he had been watching as the bludger immediately turned course to head straight for him once again. Letting out a surprised curse, Harry maneuvered downward just in time for it to pass him once again. George hit it in the direction of Draco Malfoy, this time.

Then, like a boomerang, the bludger was heading for him once again. Harry heard Gabriel curse in their head and put on speed as he attempted to keep ahead of the bludger pursuit. He had no idea what was going on; bludgers were meant to unseat as many players as possible and yet this one seemed to have fixated on him for some odd reason.

Fred was waiting for the bludger as Harry sped past him on his broom, ducking just in time for Fred to knock the bludger off course from its destination of Harry's head. "Gotcha!" he yelled in triumph.

If only it was that easy as Gabriel barely managed to warn Harry in time as the bludger came after his head again. The twelve year old was getting more and more upset as the bludger continued to focus on him like it was magnetically attracted to him. To top it all off, it had started to rain and the droplets were hindering his already poor eyesight.  _'Can't wait until that get's fixed,'_  Gabriel grumbled before shouting off another warning as the bludger approached.

The Nimbus Two Thousand responded eagerly to his directing and in was almost as if Harry and the broom were one as he avoided the bludger and zigzagged across the field at full speed. Fred and George kept on him, knocking the bludger away whenever it became dangerously close and Harry made a promise to himself to thank them after the game was through.

The Twins finally managed to signal to Oliver as they kept the bludger away from Harry as best as they could. The bludger was getting dangerously close to taking his head off as he made a mad dash across the field and back on the broom.

Madam Pince walked over their way as a timeout was called and it was just luck that the bludger took that time to launch into another attack, Harry barely able to roll his broom out of the way as Fred deflected it. The Flying instructor looked at the bludger in shock as rebounded back before dodging herself as Harry was forced to head her way to avoid having his nose broken.

"I've never seen such a thing!" she sputtered and motioned for the Twins and the Slytherin beaters to help her with the bludger. The four of them just barely managed to get the fighting ball into its case as Madam Hooch motioned to McGonagall to inform the watching students of what was happening.

"It seems that a Bludger has gone rogue and attempted to take the head off of the Gryffindor Seeker," Lee Jordan announced at Professor McGonagall's prompting. "The game has been called to a timeout until Madam Hooch can figure out what's wrong with it."

Harry gave a sigh of relief as he was able to hover in the air without worry of the bludger coming after him for the first time since the game started. Madam Hooch had her wand pointed at the ball, muttering something under her breath and frowning as her wand glowed red. "This bludger has been jinxed," she finally declared. "Someone set it up to target Mr. Potter only. When I find out who did this..." she trailed off, her eyes flashing in undisguised anger.

The Slytherin team looked just as stunned as the rest of them, however well they tried to hid it. Malfoy, on the other hand, looked amused and was snickering behind his hand as it was declared that the game would continue without the bludger as she had no clue how to reverse the jinx that was on it.

Ten minutes later and the snitch was in Harry's hand, Gryffindor winning 170 to 60. The fact that the Snitch had been hovering over Malfoy's ear when Harry had caught it was only icing on the cake and the blond Slytherin could be heard swearing up a storm all the way to the Slytherin dressing room.

"Unbelievable flying!" George said as the twins cornered him in the dressing room, ginning. "I've just seen Marcus Flint yelling at Malfoy. Something about the Snitch being right on top of his head and him not noticing. Malfoy didn't look pleased."

"It's a good thing Madam Hooch caught that rogue Bludger and took it out of the game," Fred added with a grimace. "That thing was strong! It'd have probably taken your head off if it had hit you!"

"Come on!" Alicia called from the girls side of the changing room. "Oliver and the other's are getting the house-elves to bring up food to the Common Room! Says he wants to celebrate the first victory of the season!"

The Twins ruffled his hair with two matching grins before leaving Harry to finish changing and make his own way up to the castle.

_'I hope they have cake,'_  Gabriel said and Harry doubted that he had heard his counterpart happier since they had started talking. Shaking his head with his own grin, Harry quickly dried himself off and threw on his robes before nearly running out of the dressing room and up to the castle.

With his luck, if he had dawdled, the Twins would have eaten all the cake.

* * *

Harry was awoken with a groan later that night by a popping noise that filled the boy's dorm room. Being a light sleeper, Harry was the only one to wake up out of the boys he shared a dorm room with. Squinting his eyes in the dark, he fought not to scream in shock as large green eyes looked back at him. "Dobby?" he asked softly in disbelief.

"Harry Potter came back to school," Dobby whispered miserably. "Dobby warned and warned Harry Potter. Ah, why didn't you heed Dobby? Why didn't Harry Potter go back home when he missed the train?"

Harry blinked and replied without thinking. "I didn't miss the train," he said in confusion. The barrier had closed, sure, and it had nearly been a close call but he hadn't missed the train. Dobby looked up in surprise at his reply before shaking his head miserably once more.

"Dobby was so surprised when he heard that Harry Potter was back at Hogwarts," the little house-elf mourned silently. "Dobby accidently burned master's dinner...such a flogging Dobby's never had..."

Both Gabriel and Harry were enraged as the house-elf continued talking.  _'This master of his better hope he doesn't live to see us fully powered and back in business,'_  Gabriel snarled in rage.  _'Or else I'll introduce him to the other side of a flogging! See how he likes his hands ironed and how well rags keep out the cold!'_

Harry agreed wholeheartedly. Sure Dobby had been attempting to keep him from Hogwarts but with the Chamber of Secrets opened and a monster on the loose... 'Wait a minute!' Harry thought in shock as he realized what had been bothering him since the summer and once again when the writing on the wall appeared. 'Dobby knew that something was going to happen! If we can find out who his master is...'

_'We'll know who's behind this entire thing!'_  Gabriel crooned in happiness. Harry focused back on the wide-eyed house-elf, ignoring it when Dobby bemoaned his bludger not working in sending Harry home ('We've got to teach him how to properly save someone's life,' Harry sighed in his head. Gabriel gave an agreeing hum). "Dobby," Harry began slowly, thinking over his words carefully. "You were ordered not to tell anyone about what's happening in Hogwarts, right?"

The small elf stopped talking and focused on Harry, his big green eyes widening while he nodded. "Yessir, Harry Potter sir!"

"So if I asked you if You-Know-Who was behind this..." Harry trailed off as the house-elf seemed to understand what he was doing. Harry figured that Dobby had already been exploiting loop-holes in his orders to warn Harry.

"Not He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, sir," Dobby insisted but the emphasis on the last part was telling.

_'Not Voldemort,'_  Gabriel realized. ' _He's saying that it's not Voldemort but it also is him...somehow, Voldemort is doing this from before he became a dark lord!'_

'But how?' Harry asked, feeling his head throb at another headache inducing concept being introduced to him. 'It isn't like he can just jump through time whenever he feels like it or he would have known not to try and kill us,' Harry pointed out.

Gabriel was silent, presumably trying to find another explanation for how it could be Voldemort and yet not be Voldemort.

"Alright," Harry said after a moment and as he was about to ask another question, Ron groaned and began sitting up in the bed next to him. Dobby squeaked at the sudden movement and was gone with a soft 'pop', leaving Harry with more questions than he had started with.

'I better tell Ron and Hermione in the morning,' Harry thought as he settled down to go back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, we're about halfway through the book (or maybe we're over half, I don't really have a copy of Chamber of Secrets sitting open in front of me)! The real trouble is just about to start and Dobby's given Harry and 'Gabriel' their first clue to begin solving the puzzle. Without stumbling upon the diary, going to the hospital wing and seeing Collin petrified along with his camera trashed, not to mention not studying the place where the writing was put on the wall, they're missing a lot of clues that Canon Harry had.


	10. Chapter 10

The attack on Colin Creevey was common knowledge by the morning as Gryffindor seemed to shut down on itself. While Colin was only a first year and most found his constant picturing taking to be annoying, having the first human victim be from their own house was staggering and to top it all off, no one could remember seeing Colin at the Quidditch celebration the night before. Percy Weasley seemed to be taking the petrification the hardest. "It's my job to know when someone's missing after curfew!" the Prefect bemoaned, holding his hands over his head. "How is it possible that no one noticed he was gone?"

That was the million dollar question: how had Colin's absence been missed? The first year was always making his presence known with the flashing of his camera and he tried to be anywhere Harry was. Thinking about it, the group of combined Gryffindor's couldn't remember hearing the clicking of a camera or seeing that blinding flash all night.

Ginny Weasley seemed to be taking her friend's petrification hard as well, wailing whenever someone mentioned the boy and downright sobbing ever since McGonagall had announced the new that morning two weeks ago.

That added with the visit from Dobby and the trio of Gryffindor's couldn't have found better clues if they had been trying. "Colin's a muggleborn," Hermione said fretfully that day at lunch, not even protesting the cancelled classes so that the teacher's could search for the monster. "What if this really  _is_  about purging the school?"

Both Gabriel and Harry didn't like that thought however... ' _Voldemort did have to develop his hate of muggleborns at some point,'_  Gabriel mumbled in thought. ' _But how is he doing this?'_

The hundred pound question: just how was Voldemort seemingly coming forward in time and petrifying people? According to the brief explanation on time travel that Gabriel had given Harry, time was fluid and ever changing. Going backwards in time to change events was impossible as your effect on the timeline by traveling backwards had been accounted for by the time stream already and all you would do is cement the events into place. Going forward in time wasn't an option because finding the correct future out of all the possible futures was impossible.

Needless to say, Harry gained a headache and Gabriel was stumped. Hermione and Ron were just as in the dark as they were and none of the library books yielded any information.

So intent on finding out what was going on, Harry declined going to the dueling club that Lockhart had formed in order to better protect themselves. 'A fraud isn't going to be able to teach us anything useful,' he thought to himself as he continued reading, Hermione having dragged Ron off in order to see if the club had any potential. 'I can't believe that she has a crush on him.'

' _She'll get over it soon enough,'_  Gabriel assured him. ' _Besides, she was bound to have her first crush at some point.'_

Harry nodded absently before freezing as a voice spoke from all around them . " _Blood,"_  it echoed around the room. " _Hunt...hungry! Kill!"_

' _What on Earth is that?!'_  Gabriel nearly shouted in their mind as Harry's head whipped along to search for where the voice could be coming from.

Besides Madam Pince, he was the only one in the library and yet the voice was still echoing softly around them and Harry could swear that it was moving. ' _Follow it!'_  Gabriel said hurriedly and Harry obliged, shutting the book he was reading, grabbing his book bag and forcing himself not to run after the voice.

Outside the library, the strange murderous voice was louder, seemingly going upwards. Harry sprinted after it, his stomach twisting in horror at the thought of who could be targeted next when he turned the corner and found himself suddenly sliding as his feet hit a large pool of water. Falling to the floor with a half aborted shriek, the water soaked through his once dry clothes.

Climbing to his feet and groaning at the new soreness of his backside, Harry looked around in curiosity before looking at the wall in shock. There, in blood red lettering, was the threatening writing on the wall and what looked like scorch marks seared into the bricks that were stained red. Somehow, Harry had made it to the second floor without noticing and the voice he had been following was gone. Confused and frustrated, Harry settled on finding out where all this water had come from.

He regretted the decision soon after.

Moaning Myrtle was one of the few Hogwarts ghosts that was loathed by the entire student body. Myrtle didn't seem to have a purpose in her afterlife, unlike most of the ghost in Hogwarts that attempted to help out their respective houses as much as they could. Even Peeves had his purpose in causing mayhem and mischief around Hogwarts. Myrtle just stayed in her bathroom, crying and occasionally flooding the second floor hallway.

Harry found that out the hard way, having only heard rumors of the ghost the year before. Myrtle was sitting up the window of the bathroom, her head in her hands as she cried her misery out for the world to hear. She looked up when he entered but quickly returned to her previous activities once she had properly glimpsed him. Harry could hear Gabriel snort in the back of his head and mutter something about 'weepy cry babies that should have just gone with their reaper'. Not knowing what a reaper was, Harry didn't comment and continued to observe the bathroom around him.

That was how he found the soak black book that shined with a black aura on the bathroom floor. 'What is that?!' Gabriel screeched in their mind, seemingly offend by the mere presence of the book. Harry didn't know but he had a hunch that it had something to do with the Chamber.

Picking up the books, Harry retreated to the library to further look into the matter, not even bothering to remember his wet clothes or aching behind.

* * *

The next day, Harry animatedly explained what he had learned to a listening Ron and an increasingly horrified Hermione. "They thought Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets originally?!" she practically yelled, not caring of the listening ears, so caught up in her disbelief. "Are they mentally retarded?"

Having never heard Hermione insult someone before, Harry had to stop himself from letting out a startled snort. It would figure that the one time Hermione insulted someone with authority it would be in defense of one of her friends. Not that he blamed her because he completely and utterly agreed. Unicorns were pure and glaringly picky creatures; there would be no way that Hope would accept Hagrid's presence if he had been responsible for killing a student and attacking the school.

There was also the way that the diary had felt, ugly and dirty on his skin when he held it and the way the black aura attempted to reach out to him at times was alarming. Gabriel was already spitting and snarling whenever he saw it and Harry couldn't bring himself to touch it again to dispose of it nor could he seem to find the will to go inform a teacher.

He'd tried once, going up to Professor McGonagall with the intent to tell her about his discovery, only to find himself asking a question instead. The same results had happened when he'd attempted to tell Hagrid and yet he could freely talk to his friends about the strange journal and Tom Marvolo Riddle. It irked him and confused him at the same time.

' _Whatever that thing is,'_  Gabriel grumbled.  _'It's bad news and I don't want it near us any longer than we have to have it!'_

Luckily, Christmas Holiday approached quickly and Harry found himself with an invitation to the Burrow for the holidays. He quickly sent off Hedwig with his response, ignoring the pang of jealousy as he watched her fly away into the night sky.

The days passed quickly, the entire school abuzz with talk of the approaching holidays, and Harry, who had never had much reason to celebrate, was anxious for break to start. Soon enough, sooner than Harry had thought possible, he found himself back on Platform Nine and Three Quarters and heading to the Burrow with the Weasley family.

They were greeted by two unfamiliar redheaded males as they pulled up to the Burrow, Ginny letting out a delighted squeal at the sight of them and the excited girl barely waited for the car to roll to a stop before she jumped out and practically tackled the tallest of them.

"That's Charlie!" Ron told him as he pointed to the still standing male who was holding his stomach as he laughed at Ginny and what was presumably the oldest Weasley. "The one on the ground under Ginny is Bill! I can't believe they didn't tell us they were coming!"

That was how Harry was finally introduced to the entire Weasley family, easily getting along with Bill and Charlie as the oldest of the redheaded family easily slid back into life at the Burrow. Harry found that Charlie was a wealth of information on magical creatures and was just as happy to tell them everything he knew as he was to tease them for their sudden interest.

Both Harry and Ron kept quiet about the supposed monster lurking in the hall of Hogwarts and took the ribbing with the intent that it was given, though both were disappointed when no creature matching the criteria of the attacks was brought up.

Bill had just as fascinating stories as Charlie did, however, as he worked as a curse breaker for Gringotts in Egypt. Tales of the Egyptian tombs and the different curses and traps that lay in wait within captivated even the Twins and Percy as the two weeks slowly crawled by. Harry, with some prodding from Gabriel, promised himself that he would be taking Ancient Runes the next year. From the way Bill made it sound, Runes were essential in his line of work and Harry certainly thought that being a curse breaker would be an interesting career to look into.

When Christmas day had arrived, Harry was nearly bouncing on the balls of his feet as he waited with bated breath for Ron to wake up. Harry had gotten up early this year in order to sneak his gifts to the Weasley's under the tree before anyone could see. He'd also taken the opportunity to hide a few galleons around the house in various places.

It had been obvious to Harry, from his first night at the Burrow, that although Mr. Weasley was overworked the man was severely under payed for his job. Harry had more money than he knew how to deal with, however, and had plenty left over from school shopping the year before and had begun sneaking a few galleons along with plenty of sickles and knuts, into very plausible place he could. He also kept quiet when he saw Mrs. Weasley eye him in suspicion a few times as she looked a pile of sickles that had been sitting innocently in the laundry room hamper.

Ron gave a mumbled groan from his bed and began to stir. Harry quickly pretended to be asleep as the redhead shuffled to his feet and silently made his way out of the room, probably planning to go wake up the other's before he moved onto Harry. Knowing that the Twins would attempt to prank him if he kept up his pretense, Harry climbed out of bed and began getting ready for the day, Ron soon joining him and giving him a knowing look when he thought Harry wasn't looking.

_'You need to learn to lie better,'_  Gabriel complained as Harry made his way out of the room to head downstairs for breakfast.

'You know how to lie well,' Harry pointed out.

_'Yes,'_  Gabriel agreed.

'Then what's the problem? I'm you, aren't I?'

His counterpart had no response for that and remained silent as he contemplated the question. In honesty, Gabriel had no idea how he felt about that; on one hand, Harry was him, his very essence given a human soul and on another hand, Gabriel couldn't really reconcile the mostly polite and honest twelve year old as being the same person as the prone to lying and rude Gabriel that his memories made him out to be.

Just how much of his very identity did he give up when he had assumed the role of Loki? The memories given conscience was afraid to dig for that answer, not wanting to know just how far from what he had been he had given up when he had left Heaven. He wondered how much of his time as a human, in all his various incarnations, had been a punishment as much as it had been a reward.

"Happy Christmas!" Harry was greeted by two enthusiastic fourth years, identical grins on their faces as the gabbed both of his arms and dragged him into the main room of the Burrow where a large tree stood and gifts laid strewn about the floor. "Present time!" The Twins chorused as Ron made to join them.

Bill and Charlie went first, both picking up their presents with care. Charlies received a pair of fire proof robes from his parents as well as an updated guide on magical creatures from his sibling as a combined gift. Harry, not having expected the older siblings, had only barely managed to owl order a book on the many species of dragons that had been recently discovered or had gone extinct over the years. He received a surprised hug from the Dragon Handler after Charlie had slipped on his customary Weasley sweater.

Bill, along with his own Weasley sweater, had received a set of robes that were covered in protection charms, dragon hide boots from Charlie, and a set of books on rare ancient spells from his siblings. Harry had gotten him pair of goggles that were charmed to see magic that he had seen Bill eyeing earlier in the week.

"Where did you find the time to get this?" the eldest Weasley asked in surprise as he tried the goggles out. Harry saw the magic of the Burrow pulse in greeting and grinned at the awe that filled Bill's face.

"There should be a guide on the different colors with them," Harry told him, ignoring the question in favor of searching out for the guide and handing it to the awestruck Weasley.

The Twins were next, Weasley sweaters having already been put on while Charlie and Bill had opened their presents. Harry looked at Percy in askance only to have to third oldest laugh when he caught Harry's eye.

"It's for our combined health." Percy explained. "The Twins once blew up the tree because they got bored waiting for their turn."

Harry laughed at the thought of an exploding Christmas tree just as the twins let out combined yell of surprise and jumped on him. Harry, having been annoyed at Malfoy's taunts over their brooms, had gotten the Twins two Nimbus Two Thousand's for Christmas. Harry didn't even think that they had even bothered with their other presents yet, to occupied with seeing how long it would take for Harry to suffocate from their gratefulness. "Can't breathe!" he gasped out from underneath them, inciting laughter from the watching Weasley's. Ron seemed to be snickering the most as he watched them.

They finally let up and Harry gasped for breath as air filled his abused lungs. Fred was the first one to speak as Harry's breath returned to a normal pace. "Why Two Thousand's?" he seemed pleased but also confused. It was clear that he was remembering the Two Thousand and One's that Slytherin was riding.

"Well, Malfoy thinks that the Two Thousand and One's are good brooms and he can't catch the Snitch when it literally on his head so I figured that wasn't a recommendation in their favor," Harry explained to the combined laughs of everyone that knew what he was talking about and the surprised chuckles of those who didn't know how the first Quidditch game had gone. Gabriel gave a hum of approval in the back of their head. "Plus there was a sale going one and I figured Oliver might stop making eyes at my broom if he had his own."

The Twins burst out in laughter, forced to hold their stomachs in attempt to keep from falling over from laughing as hard as they were.

The rest of the day progressed with Ron receiving his own broom from Harry as well as a myriad of gifts with Quidditch themes (even a book on the Chudley Cannons from Hermione), the Twins gaining prank kits from Zonko's, Mr. Weasley getting many new muggle contraptions to figure out, and Percy ending up with six new books from both his family, Harry, and his friends from Hogwarts.

Mrs. Weasley received a combined gift theme of cookbooks, both muggle and wizard, which she hummed in pleasure as she read. Ginny ended up with an assortment of things but she seemed to like Harry's gift the best once she figured out what it was for. The look on her face when she looked at exactly thirteen galleons was worth it though because he had never seen someone looked amused, confused, and hurt at the same time.

"I figured you might want a new wand," he offered as he looked at her worn wand that looked as if it might be a safety hazard soon. Harry already planned on giving the same amount of money to Ron for his best friend's birthday in a few months. It was also because he didn't know the eleven year old girl all the well in comparison to the males of the family, seeing as she barely ever talked to him before running in the opposite direction. It had been Gabriel who suggested the money for a new wand and Harry was forced to agree with him as it was the best idea that he had.

Ginny went bright red before giving him a shy, beaming smile and hid the money in her new trunk, which had come from her parents, right next to a new book on magical creatures (from Charlie), and story book that Harry couldn't see the title of (from Ron, Percy, and the Twins).. She was wearing a strange necklace from one of her friends and had a locket hung around her neck that was from Bill and held a picture of him and Charlie in it.

Harry was the last to open presents, being the second youngest and the guest (having insisted that Ginny go first). Ron had gotten him wizarding camera with a scrap book that came from the Twins and Percy. It seemed that they had all noticed his fondness of the pictures of his parents and had decided that he should be able to start his own album of his time at Hogwarts. He appreciated the thought and planned on taking picture of his friends as soon as he could and adding them to the book.

His Weasley sweater, made an emerald green that matched his eyes, was quickly put on. Bill and Charlie had both gotten him books. It seemed that the oldest Weasley children had noticed his interest in what they did and had gotten him a beginner's guide to runes and a book on dragons respectively. Harry blushed as he read the titles and thanks them as Gabriel hummed in interest at the books.

Harry might not know what Gabriel was but he had figured out rather quickly that his counterpart knew many, many things on nearly every subject so the interest that he was showing in something he probably already knew surprised Harry.

_'Spell casting in runes differs with every culture,'_  Gabriel explained.  _'For all I know, they link together certain runes that other cultures don't even think of trying or they combine different runes of different cultures, which can do some awesome and strange things. Dragons come in many different breeds and shapes. I've never seen a dragon like the one that Hagrid had before which means that I don't know everything on them.'_

'What kind of dragons have you seen?' Harry wondered as picked one of his remaining gifts.

_'Let's just say that Muggle myths on dragons have some basis in fact and leave it at that,'_  Gabriel told him evasively. Harry nearly scowled in annoyance before remembering what he was doing and ripped open the paper. Inside was a rather pretty looking snow globe with what looked like Hogwarts in the middle of the swirling 'snow'. "Oh," Harry whispered as he studied the globe in fascination. It didn't give off the same glow that most magical objects did and Harry had to wonder where the person who had given him this had gotten it as there was no name on it to tell him who had sent it.

"What is that?" Ron asked from beside him and Harry showed him the snow globe. "They're called snow globes," Harry told his friend. "I think that's Hogwarts in the middle."

"Cool," Ron said as he continued to study the globe. Harry nodded happily and placed it on top of his other gifts once Ron handed it back to him. Happy that it was safe for now, he turned to his last two gifts in interest, one of them clearly marked from Hermione. Like Ron, he had also gotten a book though his was about Seekers instead of the Cannons. Grinning, he tucked the book away with his other new additions and picked up the last present, which was a tin of treacle tart from Hagrid and a card about wishing him a Mercy Christmas and telling him to visit when he got back because Hope and her foals were missing him.

The presents were quickly taken upstairs and put into his trunk while Ron piled his own presents onto his bed minus his broom. Grabbing his own broom, Harry and Ron raced downstairs and outside so as to get as much flying time in as possible, the twins right behind them with their own new brooms.

It was the best Christmas that Harry had ever had, far outweighing his Christmas the year before.


	11. Chapter 11

Returning to Hogwarts for the new year was harder than Harry had thought it would be. He had enjoyed his time at the Weasley's and he almost didn't want to leave the Burrow. It was only the thought of seeing Sol, Mystica, and Celestica again that had him on the train and back in the castle with little protest. It was worth it when he was greeted enthusiastically by the small family of four the very next day when he went down to Hagrid's.

Classes resumed as normal and Colin remained petrified in the Hospital Wing, still awaiting the mandrakes to be ready to make the potion that would unpetrify him. Harry had to wonder what his family thought of his condition, being muggles, and couldn't help but feel sorry for them. To think that this happened in their son's first year must have them worried and anxious as they waited for him to be back to normal. Harry also felt back for all the school work that Colin was going to be forced to make up.

Other than that, the days came and went, passing quickly as nothing new or terrible happened. Valentines day had Harry hiding from the little naked cupid men that were following him around, reciting both good and bad poetry, with Gabriel cackling madly in his head as he looked at them. ' _Well,'_  Gabriel had said while still laughing. ' _He's not that far off except for the whole poetry thing.'_

Harry still didn't know what he meant by that and was just grateful when the day ended and the pink that was covering the school disappeared.

It was near the end of February that it happened.

Harry had left the diary under his mattress, unable to dispose of it or bring himself to touch the filthy thing again, occasionally talking over what it had showed him about Hagrid with Ron and Hermione. He was heading back up to the dorm before heading to dinner only to be met with a nervous Neville waiting at the second year dorm entrance. Neville took one look at him and began trying to babble an explanation. "I just found it like that," the nervous second year said, round face shining with nervous worry.

Harry had no idea what he was talking about until he opened the door of the room and saw the chaos that awaited him. His mattress was on the floor, the contents of his truck joining it, and clothing was thrown around in a half-hearted way. It was only Harry's stuff that had been searched, the rest of the room still in the condition that it had been in that morning.

The most alarming part of the whole thing was that the dairy, which Harry had left under his mattress since the first night that he had it, was gone and there was no trace of where it might be. Harry didn't even feel bad with startling Neville as he, and Gabriel inside their minds, cursed.

* * *

It didn't take long for the attacks to start up again. Justin Finch-Fletchley was found petrified behind the ghostly body of Nearly Headless Nick, who was also seemingly petrified as well which sent the school into a nervous panic.

After all, what could harm a ghost? They were already dead!

Suddenly, the whole school was on red alert, everyone looking around corners and never going anywhere in the castle alone. Ginny Weasley, who had looked to be getting less pale and more open than she was when she'd first arrived at Hogwarts, also seemed to curl in on herself and became more and more reclusive as the days after the newest attack passed.

She wasn't the only one negatively affected by the attack as Hufflepuff was suddenly just as moody and depressed as Gryffindor now that one of their own had been attacked. Harry couldn't really feel sorry for them as none of them had reacted beyond acknowledgement when Colin had been petrified and Mrs. Norris had fallen victim to the monsters odd appearances.

_'Our past life read too many comics,'_  Gabriel complained. _'You're becoming dramatic.'_

Harry had finally managed to get to his fourth past life in his dreams, having lived to be ninety years old in his third life and it had taken months rather than weeks to reabsorb the memories. It was strange, Harry mused as he watched everyone around him, how much older those memories made him feel and how childish he felt sometimes. It was almost as if he was becoming uncomfortable in his own skin, something that he had never been before.

_'Just think of how I feel,'_  Gabriel said, not even having to bother looking at his human self's thoughts to know what he was thinking.  _'I'm actually memories trapped in the mind of myself because we died and were reborn hundreds of times!'_

That was strange, Harry acknowledged with a hidden grimace. Even with the increased knowledge his newer memories gave him, Harry's head still hurt when he remembered that the original version of him died and because of it, they were reborn hundreds of times until he regained all his memories by touching a tree, of all things, and now those memories had been given form and could interact with him as he slowly regained the newer memories that it had been storing. 'What is our life?' Harry groaned as his head gave an unappreciative throb at his thought process. 'Not only do we have to deal with this but in all of the memories I've regained, we die fighting something. Why was a ninety year old man fighting a burglar anyways? Were we just stupid?'

_'No, we knew that we would die doing that,'_  Gabriel reminded him.  _'Self-preservation apparently goes right out the window the older we get, though.'_

Harry couldn't really argue as three lives later and he was still dying in the defense of someone or something, whether it was Hogwarts, family, or a random stranger. 'There does seem to be a theme,' he agreed hesitantly.

"Harry!" Hermione's voice cut into his silent conversation and Harry was startled as he turned to look at her with wide eyes. Ron was also looking at him oddly from where he sat next to them in the common room.

"Sorry," he apologized. "What were you saying?"

Hermione huffed in annoyance. "I was trying to get your attention! Honestly, sometimes it's like talking to a wall with how often you listen anymore!"

He hadn't realized that he was being obvious when talking to Gabriel. Both Ron and Hermione were looking at him, waiting for an explanation and it briefly crossed his mind that he could tell them. This was the moment where he could tell them about Hope, her three foals, and the tree that held the memories of all his past lives. He could tell them about his memories given conscience inside his head and he could tell them of the abilities that he was slowly regaining as he watched more and more of his old memories. The magical aura's that surround the castle, magical objects, and the students and staff were slowly becoming more and more defined as time went on, although Gabriel assured him that what he was seeing now was nothing compared to what their full vision scope was.

However, Harry found that he didn't want to tell them. Gabriel wasn't some deep dark secret, he was Harry. Older and wiser, yeah, but he was still Harry and the black haired second year didn't see Ron and Hermione discussing the deep and interwoven aspects of themselves to him. So Harry just shrugged. "I just wish that we could have one year where nothing dangerous happens at Hogwarts."

Hermione's face morphed into sympathetic longing. "It does seem like this is becoming a theme," she said.

_'It better not,'_  Gabriel grumbled.  _'The last thing we need is to be nearly killed every year on top of being separated and basically powerless.'_

This was powerless? Harry wondered as he glanced at the glowing orange, blue, and green fire in the fireplace of the Gryffindor common room. Last year, it had only looked like normal fire would but now that he looked at it, Harry could see to leftover color of the spell that had produced the flames. He was still trying to learn the different colors of each spell but the fact that, without goggles that were designed and layered with charms, he could easily see the magical residue all around him.

Yet when he looked at his own skin, besides having it glow just a tad brighter than his year mates, Harry only saw a mix of green magic swirling there. 'Why is that?' he asked.

_'It's because our Grace isn't magic,'_  Gabriel answered, once again knowing exactly what he was asking. _'Grace, the power that is threatening to tear us apart, is a completely different power source than magic. Magic is derived from the elements and the earth but Grace comes from elsewhere, a source which is much more powerful than magic could ever hope to be.'_

'Is that why Bill didn't say anything about me being different from the others? I thought for sure that he would see some sort of indication of your presence.' It had been bugging Harry since the eldest Weasley had insisted on wearing his goggles as long as he could.

_'If he had, we would have known,'_  Gabriel said a bit darkly. _'Magic goggles or not, Grace cannot be seen the human eye without consequences.'_

The way that Gabriel said 'consequences' made Harry shudder and he was suddenly glad that Bill had been unable to tell that Harry was different from them. From what he could tell, the Weasley's didn't deserve whatever horrible consequence would befall them if they look at his Grace.  _'No,'_  Gabriel agreed, pleased at Harry's claim on their Grace. It was the first time Harry hadn't referred to something that was added after they had recombined as 'their' instead of 'his'. He wasn't going to point it out, however, and could only hope that this meant that his human counterpart was becoming more accepting of who he was.  _'They don't.'_

And they didn't. As a Trickster, Gabriel had become adept at reading the human soul. Sure, most angels could tell what a person was with just a glance but Gabriel had learned to go deeper than that. Every hidden desire, every dark secret that they never wanted to see the light of day, and everything they had ever done and why they had done it. Usually it was only souls that were destined for Hell that he ended up killing and the souls that weren't, well, they learned a valuable lesson...most of the time, anyways.

"Harry!" Hermione snapped once again as Harry drifted off into thought. The black haired boy startled at her irate tone and Ron's scowl ignored the other boy. Harry grimaced, already anticipating another anger rant as Ron's temper managed to get the best of him.

Gabriel remained silent.

* * *

The first Quidditch game of Gryffindor versus Slytherin in the new year was soon on them, Hermione having headed off to the library to do some more research on the monster. "I have a good idea about what it is," she had said triumphantly that morning, a stack of papers and books in her arms before she had hurried off after breakfast. Harry didn't protest her leaving, knowing that she would be far happier in the library than she would be at the game.

Oliver had been thanking him nonstop since the first Quidditch practice they had during the new term and Harry found that the older Gryffindor was still thanking him every five minutes. It was to the point that the rest of the team was just letting their captain express their thanks (for Harry had gotten the rest of them new brooms as well) and laughed at Harry's increasingly homicidal gaze. Oliver opened up the before gaming meeting by, once again, expressing his thanks to Harry.

"Better stop doing that, Oliver," Fred said as he looked at Harry's developing twitch.

"Harry here might just curse you," George added, grinning madly as the black haired boy turned his glare to them.

They were just heading out to the pitch to meet to opposing team when Professor McGonagall came flying into the pitch in a run. "This game is canceled!" she yelled to the stunned silence of the rest of the school. "All students will return to their common rooms...there has been a double attack."

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley's," she addressed Harry, the Twins, and Ron who had made his way from the pitch to walk up with Harry. "You may want to come with me."

They did, following the grim Professor up to the school and down to the Hospital Wing. "This might be hard," she warned them as she opened the door. "But I'm afraid that they were found together."

Hermione laid stiff on the bed, eyes staring unseeingly at the ceiling, glazed and her expression frightened. Harry choked back a sob when the second victim was revealed to be Percy Weasley, his eyes just as unseeing as hers. "She was found holding this," the Professor told them, holding out a mirror. "It seems that Mr. Weasley was escorting her from the library. Do you know what it means?"

Harry looked at the mirror blankly and shook his head, numb as he looked at Ron and the Twins have a complete breakdown. Despite appearances, the Twins didn't actually dislike their brother and Harry imagined seeing him lying there as if dead was devastating. Seeing Hermione there was already hard enough and Gabriel was raging and swearing in their mind, promising painful retribution when they found out who had dared attack  _their_  friend.

Harry found that he rather agreed with the dark and violent threats, sitting down heavily in the chair next to her bed, Ron taking the chair between the two beds as the Twins just stared at their petrified brother in silence. Her words from this morning came back to him. "I have a good idea about what it is." What had she discovered that she had approached Percy to escort her? Was that why she had been attacked? Had she figured out what the monster was and the Slytherin Heir had decided to eliminate her?

_'It doesn't matter,'_  Gabriel nearly howled in anger. _'We will take them down and force them to pay either way!'_

'Yes,' Harry thought as he studied the fear on Hermione's face. 'We will.'

For Hermione, they were going to make the monster shudder in fear and the Slytherin Heir wish that he had never been born.


	12. Chapter 12

Things didn't get any better from there. Hermione's attack was followed by the arrival of the Minister and Lucius Malfoy as they arrested Hagrid and dismissed Dumbledore as headmaster. Harry had only found out about it as he had snuck down to the cabin in order to ask Hagrid about the Chamber and the spider that the idiots had thought was the Chamber's Monster. Harry had looked into the girls' death and no venom had been found in her system which meant that it was impossible for the spider to have killed her and Harry was a little disappointed about the lack of concrete evidence that the Ministry had used to prosecute Hagrid when he was only thirteen.

When the Ministry came to take Hagrid away just so they could be seen 'doing something', Harry had no doubts that any inquiries of how the girls died had been shushed up so that they could appear to have taken care of the problem. Hagrid's little tidbit given about following the spiders paid off as he was taken away by the Ministry,, however, paid off.. With Hope as his guide, the unicorn had led Harry into one of the darker parts of the Forbidden Forest that he had yet to see in their outings. Hope had made sure that her foals were safe with their heard before escorting him and Harry had to wonder just what they were going to visit that had the usually brave unicorn so antsy.

The answer was Acromantula, giant spiders that frankly scared the hell out of him and had Gabriel yelping at the sight of them. ' _How the hell did those things get that big?!'_  Gabriel hissed as spiders nearly as big as Hope surrounded them from all sides. Hope whinnied nervously as they walked just a tad too close to the unicorn. Harry glared at the spider until it back off a bit, pleased with itself as it chattered happily. Harry started when he understood the gloating the acromantula was doing. 'We can speak spider?'

Gabriel chuckled.  _'Not necessarily. Out vocal cords aren't designed for actually speaking the spider's language however we can understand them. It's a perk of being us,'_  he added in, not elaborating on what he meant. Gabriel was of the opinion that it was still a bit too early to tell Harry about what they were; what twelve year old is going to believe that they're an Archangel? Harry's initial rejection of what they were when he eventually found out would cause nearly as much problems as his soul rejecting their Grace was. Gabriel wanted their Grace to be more interwoven than it was before Harry found out what they were. Harry was interrupted before he could ask anymore questions.

"Who dares to disturb me?" A voice rasped from what looked liked giant blankets of cobweb. Six beady eyes blinked open yet did not settle on them as the largest acromantula that Harry had seen so far resettled. Strangely enough, the acromantula was speaking Queen's English.

Another spider answered from further into the small army of them. "Man!" It chanted, joined by the others around it.

"Hagrid?" the apparent leader of the spider army ( _'Again,'_  Gabriel sighed.  _'Far too many comic books.'_ ) but Harry interrupted before any of them could reply.

"No," he said loudly, relishing at the shocked silence that followed. Harry doubted that it was everyday a lowly human spoke out of turn towards them. Hope snorted, digging her hooves into the ground as she glared at the surrounding acromantula in challenge.

"You are the boy who merged with the Great Tree and shook the forest," Aragog said raspily and turned his head in the direction of Harry. The black haired boy was stunned to see that the giant spider was blind, his eyes a telling milky-white. "Your unicorn companion walks besides you, a great risk as my children surround you."

Hope putted her hooves and snorted menacingly at the surrounding smaller acromantula. They backed off warily, chattering in annoyance as they went. "What have you come to ask of Aragog, Great Tree Child?"

 _'Is that what they call us?'_  Gabriel snickered inside their head. _'Well, I guess it is better than the Boy-Who-Lived nonsense that the Wizarding World has going on.'_

Harry hummed in agreement before answering the question that the question that Aragog ( _'Arachnid Leader,'_  Gabriel mumbled as he translated that Greek 'agog' of the word.  _''Ar' for Arachnid and 'agog' for leader.'_ ). "We were sent by Hagrid," Harry answered, the 'we' rolling off his tongue more easily that 'I' would have. "He told us to follow the spiders to find out more about the Chamber of Secrets."

Aragog snarled, giant legs moving in agitation. "That foul home of that beast?" he snarled, his raspy voice seemingly raising in decibel on each word. "Even here, miles from that school, we can feel its presence lurking."

"You know what the monster is?" Harry asked eagerly as the acromantula paused.

"We do not speak its name!" Aragog all but yelled. "It is death to us!"

"Then I was right," he said in satisfaction. "You aren't the Slytherin monster."

Aragog paused, considering him in silence as what Harry now knew were his children settled down in their nests. "No I am not," the spider finally said. "Yet that school believed that I was the monster that dwells in what they call the Chamber of Secrets. Hagrid was expelled for hiding me and I was able to flee into these woods as they attempted to capture me."

"So Hagrid was expelled after he was accused of opening the chamber," Harry mumbled, nodding to himself. He had wondered about what the Ground's Keeper could have possibly done that would have gotten him expelled since the he had met the man almost two years ago. It made sense that they would blame Hagrid for the death; acromantula were rather dangerous creatures that normally had no qualms about killing. Aragog seemed to only stay his hand in killing Harry due to the small fact that Gabriel, while he was still in the tree, had placed a protection on the forest that was still in play even now, nearly a year after Gabriel had left the tree.

 _'I do good work,'_  Gabriel said smugly.  _'It'll be a long time before that protection fades.'_

'Why did you put it up?' Harry asked curiously. Sure, he knew that his counterpart was rather attached to the tree he had been in for who knew how long and he knew that Gabriel adorned their visits in the forest as much as he did but that didn't explain why the forest seemed to thrum with a familiar bright white that Harry had only seen when he had first met Gabriel.

 _'The inhabitants needed protection,'_  Gabriel said and Harry got the distinct feeling that his counterpart was embarrassed.  _'They had kept people away from my tree for hundreds of years so when settlers began to kill them off, I had to do something...'_

'And you call me too caring,' Harry snickered at him silently. It was nice to know that for all the rather rude things Gabriel said or their seemingly great differences in personality (which was odd because how was it possible to be a different person than himself?) Gabriel still had a bit of compassion hidden away. He doubted that any of the forest's inhabitants knew just how protective their 'Great Tree' was of them.

"They believed that it was I who slayed the girl that died," Aragog continued as if Harry tuned back into the conversation. "Even though the girl was found in a bathroom far from the broom cupboard that Hagrid raised me in. He is a good friend to us; even now he brings us food and it was he would brought me my wife, Mosag, and allowed me to have my children."

Aragog's children began chattering again, their large pincers clicking together in excitement. Yet there was something in what Aragog said that gave him pause. "Did you say that she was killed in a bathroom?" Harry asked, eyes narrowed in thought. Gabriel seemed to be thinking on overdrive as well, thought swirling around as he tried to connect the dots that had presented themselves.

"Yes," Aragog confirmed. "I have answered your question, Great Tree Child and now I ask that you leave. My children become antsy with your stay and I fear even the protection your Tree has offered us will not stay their hunger for long."

It was true. Aragog's children were looking at them in a way that spoke uncomfortably of how much they wanted to eat them. Nodding to Hope, he bid the great spider a goodbye and began the walk back towards the castle. It wasn't the long talk that Harry was hoping for but he had gotten a crucial bit of information from the short talk that would help him in his quest to rip the monster to shreds.

 _'A bathroom, huh?'_  Gabriel said in a gleeful cackle as they walked through darkened trees.  _'Well, it looks like dear old Myrtle might have a use after all.'_

* * *

Speaking with Myrtle was harder than it should have been. Having filled Ron in on what he had learned (leaving out the involvement of Hope and Aragog's willingness to help him based on the sole fact that he was part of the 'Great Tree'). The redhead was, for once, pleased at being left out of the action. "I bloody hate spiders," he had explained when Harry had given him an odd look at his sigh of relief. "Fred and George transfigured my teddy bear into one when I was little. I had nightmares for months!"

That was all that surprising, in retrospect, and it was even less surprising when the Twins had shown up and demanded to be let in out whatever it was they had found out. It seems that the two had noticed that most everything that happened in the castle found its way to them at some point or another. Harry had easily complied, knowing that with four people trying to interrogate the annoying ghost that was Moaning Myrtle, they would get the information they needed all that much faster.

Or that was the plan. The professor's, on the other hand, seemed determined to unknowingly thwart them as it was now required (after yet another attack in which a Ravenclaw and Slytherin prefect were finally petrified) to be escorted everywhere by a member of the staff. That meant that the teachers were literally everywhere in the school watching their every move. Even the portraits were on red alert and reported any and everyone that so much as stepped a toe out of line. It was because of this that the Twins were now in detention for the rest of the year.

The first time that Harry and Ron managed to get away after a defense class it was halfway through May and the school year was beginning to draw to a close. Harry hadn't even been able to visit Hope or her foals since he had met with Aragog! So when the opportunity to finally payback the bastard that had attacked Hermione and that had gotten Hagrid thrown into jail opened up, Harry grabbed Ron and jumped on it.

Just for McGonagall to show up in time to catch them without a teacher. "And where do you to think you're going?" she had snapped as they attempted to sneak down a hallway without being seen.

Ron paled and seemed to freeze as she stared at them. Harry, on the other hand, finally managed to produce a seamless lie without the help of Gabriel. "We were going to see Hermione," he mumbled, blushing and looking down as the strict Professor froze when she made out his answer. "It's just...we haven't seen her in forever and..." he trailed off, looking up to see her face.

 _'Finally!'_  Gabriel cheered in their head.  _'It's about time you put those lying skills to use! Now if only we could work on using it in a more selfish way...'_

Harry was too busy staring at a teary eyed Professor McGonagall to snark back at his memories (that would never be not weird). It was the first time that he had ever seen the Transfiguration Professor anything other than amused or stern and he almost felt bad for lying to her. 'No!' Gabriel scolded. 'Bad me! Bad! We do not feel bad about lying to get out of trouble! Bad!'

"Oh well," she stuttered, flustered before finally coming to a decision. "Go ahead then. Tell Poppy that you have my permission and I'll let Professor Sprout know where you are." She waved them along, sniffing as she turned to presumably go tell the Herbology teacher that they weren't coming to class.

There was only one problem with going to see Hermione: they couldn't go talk to Myrtle now and Professor McGonagall would expect to hear that they were in the Hospital Wing for the entirety of Herbology. Even if she didn't check, Madam Pomfrey wouldn't just let them leave without escorting them to the classroom which was rather far away from where they wanted to go.

Looking at Hermione made him want to cry. It was heartbreaking to see her so still and the look of fear that was stuck on her face made him feel slightly violent, something that he hadn't felt before but Gabriel seemed to be familiar with. _'Being pissed isn't all that uncommon,'_  Gabriel reminded him and Harry remembered a few snippets of memories where he, in another life, had experienced a similar emotion.

This seemed different, however, more raw than it had when he slept. Maybe that was because he was still slightly detached from the situation when he was asleep or maybe it was because of the simple fact that Hermione might not be this way if he had insisted that she wait to do the research until they could all help. If Harry hadn't been distracted by the Quidditch game, she might not be lying there on the bed like she was.

 _'Stop those thoughts right this minute!'_  Gabriel snapped. It seemed that he had enough of Harry's misery over Hermione's fate.  _'We are not responsible for whatever that hell the thing that attacked Hermione! We are the ones that are going to make it wish that it had never existed for doing so! Stop moping and start trying to figure out a way that we can end this!'_

It wasn't the best motivational speech in the world and Harry knew that Gabriel hadn't meant for it to be. He had meant for it to wake Harry up and the twelve year old wizard knew that his counterpart was right. Hermione being petrified wasn't their fault; it was the Heir of Slytherin's fault and it was his and Gabriel's job to make them pay for it. To stop them before anymore of the students ended up in the hospital wing.

Reaching out to grab Hermione's hand, Harry started when instead of cold skin he found himself touching parchment. "What?" he mumbled, catching Ron's attention. The redhead glanced at him questioningly but Harry ignored him in favor of slowly prying the parchment that was clenched in Hermione's hands out of its stiff confinement without alerting Madam Pomfrey to his discovery. After a few minutes of careful struggle, the parchment came free and Harry uncurled it as quickly as possible.

He had to stop himself for cursing at the title of the page while Gabriel fell into a horrified silence as they read. "Basilisk," he breathed and Ron seemed to freeze to his own seat next to Harry. The black haired wizard moved the parchment in a way that Ron could read as well and Harry continued on down the torn paper which seemed to have been removed from a library book. 'Spiders flee before it,' he said to Gabriel silently. 'It fits.'

 _'We've been lucky.'_  Gabriel answered gravely.  _'It seems that none of the petrified victims have looked the basilisk in the eyes or else it would be a vastly different story. They're alive before they only saw the reflection of its gaze and because the basilisk failed to kill them, they weren't devoured as its meal. No creature will eat something that its effects have failed to work on in case that they might poison it.'_

Harry felt himself pale as the ramifications of Hermione's handwritten note at the bottom set in. 'It's in the plumbing!' he shouted to Gabriel in horror. 'That's why no one has seen it moving around?!'

 _'And why Myrtle died in a bathroom. There's most likely an exit to the Chamber of Secrets in there.'_  Gabriel added and Harry could feel their combined thoughts swirling.

'We need to talk to her tonight,' Harry said in certainty, repeating his thoughts to Ron aloud. The redhead seemed to be growing paler and paler as Harry talked.

 _'Tonight.'_  Gabriel agreed.

* * *

It turned out that they had picked the best possible time to figure out what was petrifying students. Listening to the teachers talk right outside Myrtle's bathroom where a new message had appeared was the deciding point in how their night was going to end. "Ginny," Ron moaned silently next to them and Harry had to admit to being shocked that his best friend wasn't crying. This was the second of his siblings to fall victim to Slytherin's Heir and Ginny was in much more danger than Percy was.

Gabriel was also suspicious of the Heir's choice in victims. _'Ginny was unusually pale during the first half of the year. She seemed to cry when the roosters were killed and Colin's hospitalization nearly crushed her. That diary tried to leech off of us when we first found it and I remember Ginny having a diary in the beginning of the year...'_

'She got it after Diagon Alley,' Harry frowned in thought and was horrified when a black book appeared in his memories of Ginny as they made their way to the Platform. "Oh no," Harry whispered.

"'Oh no'?" Ron asked incredibly. "That's all you have to say!"

Harry interrupted before his friend could get anymore riled up. "Ginny had the diary," he hissed urgently. "She must have gotten it in Diagon Alley but she has the diary. The one that when it was stolen immediately had new attacks popping up!"

Ron seemed to be nearly ghost pale now and he let out a horrified whimper. "Ginny," he moaned silently. Harry nodded and threw the cloak that was hiding them off and slipped it inside his pockets after folding it up.

"We need to hurry before the professor's come back," Harry said as he dragged his friend along into the girls bathroom where Myrtle could be heard sobbing.

"What do you want!" the girl shrieked seemingly forgetting that she had been afraid of Harry prior to this.

Ron looked about ready to yell back but Harry stopped him. "To ask you how you died," he said cautiously. In his experience, dying hurt and telling people about it wasn't on his to do list anytime soon and it would be bad if Myrtle reacted badly and left before they could find out.

The ghost didn't look upset and almost seemed flattered that Harry had asked. "Oh it was horrible," she said gleefully. "Olive Hornby had made fun of my hair that day and I had locked myself in here to cry."

"The door opened and I shouted 'Go away!'" Myrtle continued, ignoring Harry and Ron's exchanged looks of incredulous. "I thought they had gone when I heard hissing. It was a boy's voice so I opened the door to have a good yell at him...and then I died."

"Just like that?" Ron asked in shock, looking around warily.

"Do you remember anything else?" Harry asked hurriedly. They probably didn't have much time before the professor's remember who Myrtle was and he wanted to already be looking for Ginny by then. No offense to their professor's but after last year and their pathetic attempt to protect the stone from Voldemort and not even noticing that Quirrell was acting strange (except Snape, who was apparently ignored) Harry didn't really trust them to save Ginny in time.

"Big round yellow eyes," she said after thinking for a moment. "Over there."

She was pointing at the sink. Harry looked at Ron before making his way over to the sinks unusable faucet and traced the small snakes that were carved into the metal of the faucet. "This is it!" Harry called to the redhead. Ron shook himself and moved over to Harry's side.

"How do we get in?" Ron asked mournfully a few attempts of getting it opened later.

"How should I know?" Harry snapped, aggravated and starting to get pissed. They had been at this for twenty minutes and it seemed that his distrust of the staff was right as none of them had shown up in that time to question Myrtle. In fifty years, the only witness to the murder of one of Hogwarts students and no one had ever questioned her to find out what had killed her. This would never have happened in the Wizarding World was incompetent.

"Why won't you just  _open!_ " Harry yelled in anger, not noticing as Ron jerked back in shock. The sink gave a shuddering jerk before it began to move, slowly uncovering a giant hole.

"You're a parselmouth?!" Ron gaped, looking between both the floor and Harry as if he wasn't sure what to do next.

"I'm a what?" Harry asked, staring at the revealed entrance in shock. 'How'd I do that?'

 _'Remember how you asked me if we could speak spider and I told you that our voices weren't capable of it?'_  Gabriel asked, also in shock.  _'Well we can apparently speak snake.'_

"You can speak to snakes!" Ron elaborated rather unnecessarily as Harry had gotten the answer from Gabriel "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Do I look like I knew?" Harry asked sarcastically before shaking his head. "We don't have time for this. We need to get to Ginny and you can explain about parseltongue when we get back." Looking at the revealed entrance to the Chamber, Harry stepped forward and jumped, Ron not far behind him judging from the redhead's screaming as they fell.

Unlike last year where they had landed on Devil's Snare (Gabriel seemed to choke before laughing uproariously) a metal pipe supported their weight as they slid down farther than Harry thought the dungeons of the school were located. Bones, instead of a deadly plant, cushioned their fall and Harry whipped out his wand as quickly as he could while Ron landed next to him.

"Harry," Ron whimpered as he pointed, light filling the cavern from Harry's wand. Said wizard turned to look and paled at what look to be a fifty foot long snake's skin.

 _'Great,'_  Gabriel remarked silently with derision.  _'It had to be an ancient basilisk, didn't it? It couldn't have been a baby, no that's too easy! It had to be over a thousand years old!'_

Harry agreed with Gabriel's annoyance as he surveyed the area. The Chamber looked off to him, the magic of Hogwarts seemingly glowing brighter than Harry had ever seen it. Gabriel was also studying the magic curiously. "We need to find Ginny now," Harry whispered, standing. "Get your wand out," he instructed.

Ron did so only to moan in horror. The wand, having already been old and untaken care of, had withstood far too much during their fall and had snapped in half. Harry looked at the broken wand as Gabriel cursed every known deity in the world. It was obvious that Ron would be of no help with his wand destroyed. "Yell for help," Harry told him after thinking it over. "The professor's will look for us eventually and hopefully they'll hear you."

Ron gave an acknowledging nod before yelling upwards a mix of words that mostly consisted of 'we're down here'. He paused as Harry went to continue onwards, hugging the black haired second year before he could go any further.

"If...if it's too late," Ron seemed to stuttered, tearing up. "If Ginny's already...just get out of there. Mum wouldn't forgive you if you died trying to save her." The unsaid 'neither would I' made Harry hug the redhead back just as tightly as Ron was hugging him.

"I will," he promised before beginning his journey into the depths of the Chamber. Climbing over the snake's skin, Harry felt Gabriel ready himself in the back of their minds.

 _'We've got a promise to keep,'_ Gabriel said viciously.  _'He'll pay for hurting Hermione and the other's.'_

'And he better hope that Ginny is alive,' Harry added, eyes narrowed.

It was time to end this nightmare, once and for all.


	13. Chapter 13

The Chamber of Secrets was just as dark and disgusting as Harry had expected it to be. Underneath the thousand years worth of decay had left the Chamber in its current state but Harry could see, beneath it all, the remnants of what the Chamber used to be. He was surprised to see that there had once been benches around the walls and he could see the remains of picture frames hidden underneath the bones of dead animals that were most likely left by the Basilisk.

'This doesn't look like a death chamber that was built to purge the school of muggleborns,' Harry observed.

 _'No,'_  Gabriel agreed.  _'This looks more like a sanctuary that's fallen into decay. I'm beginning to think that we don't know everything about who Salazar Slytherin was.'_

'Everyone agrees that he was prejudiced against muggleborns,' Harry argued but he had his own suspicions that were whispering in the back of his head. 'How could it be a widely accepted fact if it doesn't have some truth to it.'

 _'I have a feeling that truths in the Wizarding World have a lot less fact than they would care to admit,'_  Gabriel explained.  _'If I'm correct about the time period that they lived in, Slytherin would have been right to be wary of muggleborns. They were burning witches a thousand years ago and I doubt that muggleborns always accepted the fact that they were born with magic.'_

'So they could have led the Witch Hunters here,' Harry realized and the idea of a sanctuary underneath the school made that much more sense. 'If their parents happened to be Witch Hunters, the entire population of Hogwarts could be put to risk.'

 _'Thus a Chamber hidden in the school where only someone from a magical bloodline could access and a guard that could not be reasoned with by muggles.'_  Gabriel concluded sounding both smug and sad at the same time.

'Then how did we all forget? History of Magic doesn't even really cover the Witch Hunts all that well. It's like the people just forgot about the danger.' It didn't make any sense. Sure, History was written by the victor but that shouldn't be able to cause an entire magical society to forget the dangers that were present in different time periods, not to mention the whole society conveniently forgetting that part of history.

 _'I don't know but we've more important matters to deal with,'_  Gabriel reminded him. _'Whether or not the chamber was originally supposed to be the last defense of the school doesn't matter when the Slytherin Heir is using the original magicks to attack the school from within. It doesn't seem to matter to him whether or not his victims are muggleborn or halfbloods or even purebloods, seeing as Percy was attacked as well and the Weasley's are a pureblood family.'_

Harry didn't have a chance to respond, having come to the end of the long tunnel only to be faced with a brass door blocking his way. 'Focus on the snakes,' Gabriel suggested as Harry studied the snakes that covered the brass door. 'If it's anything like the entrance we came in, then the password will be in snake. Last time we spoke it, we were looking at a snake and before that, at the zoo we talked to the snake before we freed it.'

Harry nodded and looked at the snakes that held the brass door closed. "Open," he said, english coming out instead of the desired parseltongue. Frowning in annoyance he tried again with the same result. Eyes narrowing, Harry made sure to focus of the snake closest to him and tried a third time.

" _Open_!" He snapped, hissing coming out instead of English. The snakes began to move, receding as a smaller snake crawled past where their heads had been. With a creak that made Harry think the door was rusted shut, the rounded entrance opened as the brass door swung passed him.

 _'There, you see?'_  Gabriel, if he had had a face, would have been grinning. The memory of the Archangel loved being right, probably just as much as he had when he had been more than just memories.

Harry ignored the cheerful voice and stepped into the what was most likely the actual Chamber of Secrets and home to the Basilisk.

If Harry thought that the sanctuary outside had once been beautiful, it had nothing on the inside of what he suspected was the actual Chamber. Giant carved snakes stood at the end of a long stone floor, all of it covered with green mildew, the original colors lost to time. A statue of a man that was probably Salazar Slytherin stood proudly in the center of the room and Harry thought that it most likely had once been just as grand and magnificent as the Great Hall was in its glory days because even now, a thousand years later, it was still awe inspiring to look at.

He discontinued studying his surrounding in favor of Ginny, who was lying sprawled on the floor not far from the statue in the center. With water surrounding her and covering most of the cavern they were in, Harry hoped that she hadn't been there long as if she was injured, catching cold or pneumonia would do her no good. 'Then stop staring at her and go check!' Gabriel scolded, sounding more than a bit annoyed. Harry didn't blame him, he'd be annoyed to if he was in Gabriel's situation (which he was, in a strange, still mind breaking, way).

Harry rushed over to Ginny's fallen figure, setting his wand down as Gabriel instructed him on how to check for a pulse. He wasn't the only one relieved when he found a steady pulse as his fingers wrapped around her wrist.  _'That's good,'_  Gabriel said and Harry could relief in his voice.  _'She's just unconscious. Madam Pomfrey should be able to fix her up as soon as we get out of here.'_

Harry nodded, reaching for his wand...except that it wasn't there, his hand meeting cold stone instead of a familiar wood. "She won't wake," a voice, familiar in a horrible and gut-wretching way, spoke from behind them. Harry turned around, standing as he did so and came face to face with Tom Riddle, twirling Harry's wand in the middle of his fingers.

"Tom Riddle," Harry said easily and everything made that much more sense. The diary was Tom's and he had been the one that had implicated Hagrid in the opening of the Chamber of Secrets when it had opened fifty years ago. "So you're behind the attacks." It wasn't a question and he could feel Gabriel seething within him, just as pissed as he was.

"Oh?" Riddle cocked his head to the side, he face a perfect mask of innocence but Harry could see the darkness that was surrounding him, radiating from the inside out.

 _'Don't underestimate him,'_  Gabriel warned.  _'He might have the mind of a fifteen year old but remember, he's been in that book for fifty years. We won't know what kind of memories he has of that time or what he's learned, not to mention that he now has our wand.'_

'So he could be more dangerous than he already was at fifteen,' Harry concluded. 'Not to mention the darkness that's surrounding him.'

Gabriel was silent for a moment before he began cursing.  _'I can't believe I didn't notice it before!'_  Gabriel said with a snarl. _'That diary just became much more interesting and dangerous. He isn't a memory but a soul fragment.'_

Harry didn't respond as Riddle seemed to have noticed his inattentiveness to him and had pointed the Holly wand that wasn't even his at Harry. "You're smart," Riddle said, seemingly annoyed at having to compliment him. "You seemed to have already figured out who I am; that's more than I can say for the incompetent people at the Ministry. They honestly believed that half-breed was the Heir of Slytherin?" Riddle scoffed and began smirking at Harry, studying him with teal eyes that seemed to be attempting to see into the deepest part of Harry's soul.

"Harry Potter," he said and Harry started at the sudden use of his name. "I must say, you've surpassed my expectations. Finding the Chamber and even managing to access it! It took me until my fifth year to find this Chamber, hidden as it was in the girls bathroom. Of course, my expectations were already high."

Harry had a bad feeling about this, almost as if he had met Tom Riddle before. There was a familiar way to how he talked and the look in his eyes reminded Harry of another person that he had met the year before. "You had expectations?" he asked as Gabriel began trying to figure out just how a soul fragment had ended up in a diary.

Riddle gave him a secretive smile, his teals eyes seeming to darken as he looked over. "A baby," he began, eyes narrowing. "Manages to defeat the greatest wizard in the world, the only one to ever survive the Killing Curse in the history of its creation. I'd be a fool to not have had expectations. So tell me, Harry Potter, how did you manage to defeat the greatest wizard in the world?"

The question set Harry on edge. He had a suspicion about why Riddle was talking like he was but if he was right, then the professors had fucked up ('So you can curse!') worse than he had ever thought they could have. "I didn't," Harry snapped. He didn't know if it was true or not and he honestly wasn't sure if he would ever find out but Dumbledore had explained his own theories to Harry about his survival the year before and now Harry was about to throw those into Riddle's face. If he was right about who Riddle was then the knowledge would serve to piss him off.

 _'And anger will cause him to make mistakes,'_  Gabriel added and Harry could feel the thrum of anger underneath their skin. Gabriel, like Harry, was anxious to end this. "My mother," Harry said, enjoying the look of confusion on Riddle's face. "My common muggleborn mother defeated Voldemort. And now he's a shade of himself, not even strong enough to possess a body!"

It hit home alright and Riddle's face twisted into a angered sneer, his eyes promising murder as he snarled. Harry didn't let up there, however, and continued. "Why would you even care? Voldemort is after your time!" Now all he had to do was wait for Riddle to confirm his thoughts.

"Voldemort is my past, present and future!" Riddle yelled and using Harry's wand, he wrote flaming words in the air. Tom Marvolo Riddle. Waving his hand, the words rewrote themselves and Harry fought back a snort at the cheesiness of it. I am Lord Voldemort.

 _'Great,'_  Gabriel snarked.  _'He's a bloody psychopath with delusion of grandeur! What could possibly go wrong with that?'_

Harry watched as the flames faded out of existence before he lunged at Riddle, catching the spirit off guard and knocking him to the ground. Riddle was more solid that Harry had originally thought and struggled against Harry's weight as the twelve year old attempted to go for his wand. " _Speak to me Slytherin!_ " Riddle yelled, his words coming out in a series of hisses. " _Greatest of the Hogwarts four!_ "

Harry ignored the sound of stone moving, more intent on getting back his wand. If what he thought was happening was actually happening, then he would need the weapon now more than ever. Riddle seemed to become bored with their wrestling and with a blast of pure magic, threw Harry across the room and nearly in the water that surrounded the main pathway.

That was when he caught his first sight of the Basilisk. The snake was much larger than the fifty foot snake's skin and if Harry had to guess, he would say that the great snake was nearly fifteen feet longer than he had thought. It's head was about as big as Harry was tall which didn't give him much confidence on how he was going to beat this thing. " _Kill him!_ " Riddle yelled and the snake turned towards him...

Just in time for a loud cry to fill the tunnel. Harry turned his head to the still open entrance of the cave and saw a pheonix, of all things, flying into the Chamber with what looked like the Sorting Hat clutched in his talons.  _'Well,'_  Gabriel said after a moment of stunned silence from everyone still conscious in the room. _'I guess that Dumbledore isn't all that useless after all.'_  Harry looked at the two magic auras that were covering the phoenix and had to agree. He never would have guessed that Dumbledore would have a phoenix and he hoped beyond hope that the appearance of the pheonix meant that someone had heard Ron (or had finally went to talk to Myrtle and saw the giant hole in the floor). Fawkes, as the phoenix had introduced himself ('We can understand birds too?!' Harry asked in shock as Gabriel laughed) dropped the hat on the ground before attacking the eyes of the Basilisk.

"So this is what Dumbledore sends to protect his school?" Riddle sneered. "A song bird and a silly old hat?"

Harry ignored him in favor of the hat. It was glowing brightly in a way that Harry had never seen it do and with a burst of inspiration, he threw the hat on his head, diving to the side as the Basilisk attempted to strike Fawkes, only for the phoenix to dodge. 'I need to defend myself with!' he thought urgently, rolling to the side as one of the snake statues was broken by the thrashing basilisk.

A painful thump was heard as something hard hit his head. A sword clattered to the ground and Harry heard Gabriel cheer inside their head. Picking up the blade, he found that it felt both wrong and right in his hands. He didn't have much time to think more about it as Fawkes finally managed to blind the Basilisk's eyes.

He felt bad for what he would have to do. The basilisk was originally supposed to be the guardian of the school and Harry could hear its confusion as it searched for the threat it was supposed to destroy. It was old and Harry had no doubt the poor thing had gone insane from its time isolated down here from the rest of the world. Hefting up the sword, Harry ran forward, miraculously not falling on his face due to the water on the floor.

He dodged the Basilisk's strike, the snake using its sense of smell in place of its eyes to kill him. With a graceful swing ('How'd I do that,' he wondered), Harry slashed into the hide of the Basilisk and heard it scream in pain as the sword cut deep into its flesh.

 _'The mouth!'_  Gabriel yelled urgently.  _'Go for the mouth! Into the brain is the only way you're going to kill it!'_

Harry didn't question how Gabriel knew this and instead, he moved on what was nearly instinct, dodging and striking as he looked for his opening. The Basilisk seemed to grow angrier and angrier at his continued evasion until finally, it opened its large mouth in what would be its last attempt to kill him. Harry raised the sword as the Basilisk's head came at him, plunging the blade upwards into its mouth and into its brain, killing it instantly.

He wished that would have been the end of it but a large piece of fang puncture and break off into his arm, Harry barely able to hold back an agonized scream as he felt venom flow through his system and the world begin to blur.

Harry thought, in a moment of pain, that they were going to die. Yet it seemed that their Grace disagreed with them, flaring hotly underneath their skin until Harry had to fight back a scream that was echoed by Gabriel in their mind. Memories of swords clashing and pain filling him as he was stabbed through flooded into his mind as white Grace surround him before disappearing without any warning, the poison gone from his system leaving him gasping for breath on the ground.

Riddle, in what was annoyingly his best idea so far, had covered his eyes during the process and could only just stare at him in unadulterated shock. The fifteen year old Dark Lord to be looked as if Harry had just destroyed his every belief in that one moment. That didn't matter to Harry and the black haired wizard pushed aside the newest memories in favor of looking toward the teal eyed Heir of Slytherin. He and Gabriel had promised to end the one that had attacked Hermione and he planned on keeping that promise.

His Grace had receded into his body but his magic was still there for use. Sword in hand, Harry filled the magical blade with his magic and anger and lunged forward towards the stunned Riddle, piercing him through the stomach with the magically charged venom soaked blade. Riddle threw back his head and screamed as a bright golden light surrounded his darkened soul piece, consuming it from the inside out until it retreated to the black diary that sat on the floor, not to far from where Ginny lay still.

 _'Stab that thing and get this over with!'_  Gabriel growled, pissed at how things had gone so far.  _'I want to know how part of a soul, one dark enough that it could be a demon, got into a diary and how that diary fell into the hands of a little girl!'_

Harry wanted to know that as well. Raising the sword, he brought it down onto the diary and listened in satisfaction as Riddle screamed before dissipating into nothingness. Looking down at his arm, he frowned as he saw that fang still sticking out of it. Wrapping his right hand around the broken edges of the fang, he yanked it out with a ferocity that he hadn't known he had.

Ginny coughed and moaned on the floor and Harry spun around, fang in one hand and sword in another, to see the girl sitting up and looking around at her surroundings in shock. She about fainted when she caught sight of him, his arm bleeding and grime covering every inch of him. "Oh my god, Harry!" she sobbed and lunged for him, taking the both to the ground where she clung to his dirtied robes and just cried.

Fawkes let out a soft coo as he land on Harry's shoulder before beginning to sing. The song instantly calmed her and Harry felt himself relax as well, slowly pushing them both upwards. "Thanks Fawkes," Harry said smiling and Gabriel agreed with him silently. Fawkes chirped in response and hopped to the floor.

"You're bleeding!" Ginny exclaimed, eyes impossibly wide with horror. Harry started and looked down at the rounded wound. He hadn't even noticed that it was there and even looking at it, he couldn't really feel any pain.  _'After effect of using so much Grace at once,'_  Gabriel told him.  _'Using that much nearly killed us as much as the Basilisk venom would have. Our entire system is in a state of shock and I doubt that we'll be coming out of it anytime soon.'_

'I'd best bandage it, then,' Harry said, not wanting to think about how close to death they had nearly come. He had promised Ron that he wouldn't die in here and he felt nauseous at the thought of nearly breaking that promise. ' _Let's not tell him,'_  Gabriel suggested easily and Harry agreed. The last thing he needed was for the redhead to freak out. Looking at his bloodied arm once again, Harry sighed and lifted up his robe to reveal the shirt and trousers underneath. With a strong yank, Harry ripped the fabric of his undershirt and pulled until he had a long enought strip of it in his hands. Biting one end of the fabric, he wrapped it around his arm, covering the bloodied hole that went all the way down to the bone.

"Ron's waiting for us at the Chamber entrance," Harry told her as he stood up.

Ginny nodded and pulled herself up to the floor, tears flowing down her face as she tried not to cry but failed to keep it in. "I attacked those people," she whispered and before they could even leave their part of the chamber, she collapsed sobbing in horror. Harry had no idea how to comfort her as she cried. Ginny, logically, should have told someone the minute that her diary began talking to her but Harry knew that the magics on the diary, which was now clutched in Fawkes' talons, that the magic Riddle (his main soul piece, that is) had put on the diary would have prevented her from telling anyone.

Harry also knew that he, Ron, and Hermione had also been caught in that spell when Harry had found and showed the diary to them after he had found it. It pissed Gabriel off that they hadn't noticed it when they had looked at the diary the first time but it was an ingenious spell. The spell hadn't been visible over the dark aura that the diary had exuded and Harry had to wonder if he would be able to see such things better when he and Gabriel finished merging together. _'We should,'_  Gabriel answered, more in tune with Harry's thoughts than he had been before.

'Is that normal?' Harry asked. Proving that he could hear more than he could before, Gabriel answered. _'Probably. We did just use a rather large amount of Grace right there. It's just lucky that your soul didn't completely regect it or we wouldn't be having this conversation.'_

Harry nodded absently as he rubbed Ginny's back in what he hoped was a soothing manner. "It isn't your fault," he told her as her sobbing began to wind down. "I tried telling the professor's about the diary more than once and it was like I couldn't even talk about it around them."

Ginny looked at him in alarm before nodding as well. "I tried to ask Dad about it..." she said and Harry knew that the same thing had happened to her when she had tried to talk to Mr. Weasley about the small black book. "I couldn't even bring the book to him to show him."

"See?" Harry said feeling so out of his depth that it wasn't funny. He'd never had to comfort somebody before and all of his memories that he'd regained didn't help when the girl crying was only eleven, had been possessed, and blamed herself for petrifying people in the school. "I'm sure Headmaster Dumbledore won't blame you for what happened."

Fawkes trilled in agreement, the diary still clutched in his talons. Ginny took a deep breath before smiling tearily at him and standing. Harry grinned at her and held out his uninjured arm for her to take his hand.

It was time to get out of here.

* * *

Getting out of the chamber wasn't as easy as Harry had hoped it would be but Fawkes solved that problem when he proved to have superbird strength ( _'I regret ever glancing at a comic book,'_  Gabriel bemoaned.  _'If you start going 'pow' I'm deleting those memories!'_ ) and managed to pull all three of them out of the pipe that lead into the Chamber. " _Close,_ " Harry hissed at the sink as they landed in Myrtle's bathroom. Ginny gave a startled shriek at the hiss and Ron was forced to explain to hysterical sister what they had discovered when attempting to open the Chamber.

That wasn't the only hardship they met as Harry remembered that due to never having actually been in Dumbledore's office, he had no idea what the password was or where said office was located at. "We should go to the hospital wing," he said after a moment of Ron and Ginny arguing about where they should go. For once, Ron was all for going to the hospital wing while Ginny wanted to go turn herself in to the Headmaster. "Unless you know where the Headmaster's office is?" he asked with a sheepish grin. Ginny paused, red eyes widening as she realized that no, she didn't.

"Thanks mate," Ron hissed to him as they walked. "I don't know why she wanted to go to the Headmaster so bad. I mean, she nearly died!"

Harry didn't answer as the throbbing in his arm finally made itself known. He fought back a whimper as they walked, Gabriel mindlessly babbling in their mind in attempt to keep Harry's thoughts away from the pain. He was just lucky, Harry thought to himself, that their Grace had burned out the Basilisk's venom from his system. He really didn't want to know how that would have felt running through his veins.

It was a relief when they finally arrived at the infirmary. Madam Pomfrey nearly fainted when she saw them, covered in grime and in Harry's case, blood. "Out of those clothes!" she ordered immediately, nearly pushing them towards the changing area. "I want to get a good look at you all. What were you children doing?!"

They didn't answer, changing into their hospital gowns with little complaint. Ginny was the first done and the nurse nearly warped over to her side to guide her to an empty bed and begin checking her over. Ron was next, having finished getting dressed only seconds after Ginny had. Harry, though, was the slowest of them, having to work around his still bleeding and rather painful feeling arm. By the time he was done, Madam Pomfrey had already concluded that Ginny was magically exhausted but overall, she was okay and there was absolutely nothing wrong with Ron other than being cold and having a few bruises.

She indicated for Harry to sit on the bed when she noticed that he had emerged and began running scans on him, growing increasingly pale the more spells that she cast. "Oh my," she mumbled, staring at him and his arm. "These scans have to be malfunctioning. According to this, you've trace amount of Basilisk venom in your bloodstream, your magical core is severely depleted and your arm is damaged all the way to the bone!"

Harry fought back a grimace and kept silent as potion after potion was pushed towards him, her eyes promising a long term stay if he didn't drink them as instructed. The bleeding from his arm was stopped and the pain faded away as Madam Pomfrey gave him one last potion, telling him that he was to get some rest while she alerted the Headmaster of what was going on.

Closing his eyes, Harry fell asleep not long afterwards.

* * *

He almost wished that he could have stayed that way as when he opened his eyes the next morning, the entire Weasley family and most of the staff were waiting up for him. The Headmaster looked to be the only one awake, however, and Harry was more than grateful that he wouldn't have to explain the story more than once. He didn't know if he could keep to the facts on what he and Gabriel had decided to tell them about what had happened.

"Ah," Dumbledore spoke, his voice startling the people dozing around him. Harry didn't question what Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were doing here, assuming that Dumbledore had called them here when it was discovered that Ginny was missing. "I'm glad to see you awake, Mr. Potter. I dare say that Madam Pomfrey was getting a tad upset with your visitor's refusal to leave until you woke."

Harry didn't doubt that. While nice, the nurse was strict about her rules and even stricter about people needlessly cluttering the Hospital Wing. He said nothing, though, content to let Dumbledore speak for the moment as the redheads around him shook themselves awake. "We were hoping that you would clarify a few things for the school record," Dumbledore told him but Harry knew that the Headmaster wanted to make sure that he had the entire story for when the Ministry inevitably tried to cover it up. They had thrown an innocent man in Azkaban to be seen as 'doing something' by the people. It wasn't that much of a reach to think that they would blame everything on Ginny.

The fact that Dumbledore was once again the Headmaster (he couldn't believe he'd forgotten that the old professor had been fired by the Hogwarts Board of Directors) and gave him a sure nod. Opening his mouth, Harry began his retelling of events on the eve that he had found Tom Riddle's journal. He left out Gabriel's existence in his story, emitting most of the conversation he'd had with Aragog to just summing up the bare basics of what he had learned.

His audience listened to him, enraptured by everything that had been sitting right under their noses. The professor's seemed especially annoyed when he told them that he'd attempted to inform them about the diary before, only to find himself unable to talk about it in their presence. After what felt like forever, Harry finished up his story by telling them of how, after getting out of the Chamber, they had ended up in the hospital wing. "It's a good thing too!" Madam Pomfrey huffed as she straightened out some bed sheets. "You were in a right state when you got here and hearing this, I'm not surprised you passed out as quickly as you did."

 _'Our body was under too much stress from everything that happened,'_  Gabriel explained to him as Madam Pomfrey bustled around.  _'Frankly, I'm surprised that we managed to stay conscious as long as we did. That poison forced us to use more Grace than we ever have before and it nearly shut down our body when it flare up to disolve the venom. In all honesty, we should have died.'_

Harry fought back a shudder; he didn't want to think about what would have happened if they had died. 'We're okay now, though, aren't we?' he asked hesitantly.

 _'Yes,'_  Gabriel answered but there was something in his voice that Harry didn't like. _'The rate of our reintegration has increased exponentially. Originally, we would have completed it when we turned twenty but now, if I'm doing my math right, we should complete it at eighteen.'_

'That's good...isn't it?'

 _'In theory, yes. In practice? Well, there are a lot of things that could go wrong. Our soul could still reject our Grace and we could burn out or we could end up burning the eyes out of anyone around us when it completes. It's even possible that we could even destroy half the planet when we come together completely. This hasn't ever happened before so I honestly don't know.'_  Gabriel sounded frustrated and Harry couldn't blame him. He was also frustrated at the lack of concrete knowledge of what could happen now that they were merging quicker than before.

Their conversation trailed off as Harry was bombarded by four concerned Weasley children and two adults. It was the first time that Harry had ever seen any similarities between the redheaded parents and their children; all six of them were both yelling and hugging him, Ron mostly upset because Harry had ended up injured while Ginny was blaming herself for...well, everything, really.

Not long after the Weasley's were finally thrown out of the hospital wing by an irate Madam Pomfrey, Hagrid showed up, looking a bit ragged and dirty but smiling all the same. "Ye did it, 'Arry!" the Grounds Keeper grinned as he clapped Harry on the back. "Ah knew ye could!"

"Thanks Hagrid," Harry grinned back, shifting slightly in his seat. His arm gave an annoyed twinge of pain but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been. Madam Pomfrey had regrown the part of the bone that had been pierced by the fang and the muscles had already healed over it. All that was left was for the top layer of skin to heal over and due to the amount of magic that had already been used on the wound, Harry would have to wait until he healed naturally for his arm to stop hurting. ' _It could have been worse,'_  Gabriel pointed out and Harry acknowledged that fact with a grimace. He didn't want to think about how bad it could have been if Fawkes hadn't shown. For all that he and Gabriel were confident in their abilities to take out the Heir, they had forgotten one important thing: for the time being, all they had in their arsenal was their magic, which Harry could barely manipulate due to his young age, even with his memories as a full grown wizard, Harry's magical core was too underdeveloped to use like he knew he could.

 _'The drawbacks of being a child,'_  Gabriel sighed within their mind.  _'We have all the memories and knowledge necessary to do things but none of the power.'_

'We'll fix that,' Harry said determinedly as he and Hagrid talked about everything that the man had missed during his incarceration at Azkaban. They made plans to visit Hope, Celestica, Mystica, and Sol before the end of the school year and Hagrid gave him what looked like a hand carved versions of all four of them laying together as they slept. Harry accepted the gift with a grin and promised Hagrid that he would come down and visit as soon as he could.

Days passed, the end of the year only a week away, when the Mandrake potion was finally able to be completed and Hermione, along with everyone else that had been petrified, were awake once again. Madam Pomfrey still had Harry confined to his own hospital bed in order to ensure that his arm didn't get damaged any further and was healing properly.

"Oh my goodness!" Hermione had cried out, the last to be revived but the first to spot Harry with his arm in a sling to prevent him from using it. "What happened?!"

Harry told those listening about what they had missed, Percy going deathly pale when he heard that Ginny had been taken into the Chamber itself. He told them that the one behind the attacks was a spirit that was trapped in a diary and had possessed the redheaded girl since the beginning of the year. "Oh my," Hermione had whispered as he had began explaining that Ginny, like them, had been unable to tell any adult about the diary.

"And Mr. Potter along with Mr. Weasley seemed to think that it was a grand idea to go after Ms. Weasley by themselves!" Madam Pomfrey huffed, clearly displeased with what had happened. "He's lucky that the Headmaster's phoenix found them, less they both be dead! Even then, the tears only managed to purge the venom in his system and not heal the wound itself!"

Hermione gave him a look that could only be described as pissed, her eyes narrowed, promising a lecture as soon as he was released from the hospital wing. Really, Harry hadn't planned on telling her about what had happened but he knew from the looks on the faces of those waking up that if he didn't, they might just blame Ginny for their attack and he didn't think the redhead would be able to handle that. He'd also been hoping to downplay the seriousness of his injuries off until Madam Pomfrey had spoken, likely knowing exactly what he was planning on doing.

Three days before the end of the school year, Harry was finally released from the Hospital Wing and quickly made his way down to Hagrid's cabin, where the man was waiting for him with Hope and her foals.

Sol saw him and was immediately by his side, excited at his appearance. Harry was unsurprised to find that he could now understand what the young foal was saying, having apparently missed him greatly in his absence. Hope stood and approached as well, nibbling gently on his hair, something that Harry now understood was a gesture of motherly affection.

 _'A unicorn has adopted us,'_  Gabriel observed and Harry could hear the pleasure in his counterparts voice. From the memories that he had gained during the fight with the Basilisk, Harry knew that they had never really had all that much luck in the family department. There was a lot about those memories that Harry didn't understand yet and he knew that Gabriel was unlikely to explain it to him, yet that didn't bother him as much as it would have only months before. Like Gabriel had first told him, when they had met during Gringotts, they were the same person and that was becoming more and more apparent as Harry regained more and more memories.

He hadn't seen anymore about when he was Gabriel but that didn't bother him. Sitting down on the grass, arm still in its sling, Harry began telling the foals and Hope all about what he had been doing, Harry felt as if he had found part of himself, a part that he hadn't even known was missing. He'd friends, family, and he had himself.

For the first time in his life, Harry felt like he was at home. And three days later, as he boarded the train for the summer holidays, Harry was already counting down the days until he returned to Hogwarts the next year.


	14. Chapter 14

Harry had expected the summer holidays to be boring and not all that different from previous years. He'd been right, for the most part, as when he arrived at the Dursley's he was immediately set to work on weeding the lawn and repainting the fence. His relatives acted like his escape the previous summer had never happened and Harry didn't know whether to be grateful or not about it.

A month into the summer, Harry had already worked his arm more than Madam Pomfrey had recommended that he do and his work list was only growing. Harry decided that he was done then and there. He was already having trouble absorbing the memories he had gained in the Chamber and he didn't need any help damaging himself further.

In hindsight, he really should have seen this coming. Or Gabriel should have seen this coming. Thinking about it made his head hurt. Either way, the advanced rate of his memories being shoved into his head was jumbled, having been kick started by the flash of his death as Gabriel that he had received in the Chamber. Three human lives had also been played out in his dreams since then and Harry was beginning to have trouble separating himself from whom he had been and who he was.

' _Identity crisis taken to a whole new level,'_ Gabriel commented in his head and Harry started in surprise. Gabriel had been mostly silent since he (they?) had arrived back at the Dursley's. ' _Really?'_  Gabriel asked in surprise. ' _I don't remember being quiet...'_

Oh great, his memories didn't remember. That made total sense. Harry shook his head, rubbing his temples at the sudden change in personality. 'Is this how its always going to be?' He asked, half horrified by the thought while the other half that had been a scientist in another life was intrigued. 'I don't think I can handle the split personality!'

' _I don't know,'_  Gabriel sounded apologetic. ' _Nothing like this has ever happened before and from what I can tell, we're already doing better than we could have been.'_

Harry felt the urge to laugh hysterically. 'This is better?' He hoped the disbelief in his thoughts was apparent. 'I can barely tell who I am half the time! It's like every set of memories I've gained since the Chamber are at war with each other!'

' _That would be the fault of the increase in Grace to our system that was caused by the Chamber,'_ Gabriel told him and Harry could almost hear the 'duh' that wasn't spoken...err...thought. ' _I did tell you that our estimated time of complete reintegration had been pushed up! We're lucky that our Grace isn't eating us from the inside out or that we're not causing a near nuclear explosion and killing everyone around us.'_

Harry was silent. When he put it that way... 'This is better,' he admitted, ignoring the curiosity that seemed to accompany all of his decisions lately. No, he did  _not_  want to know  _how_  this was happening! He wanted to know when it would end, dammit!

' _I told you that too,'_  Gabriel reminded him, apparently now able to read all of his thoughts. ' _From our current rate we should be one being again by the time we're...oh.'_

'Oh?' Harry asked, not sure he wanted to know but knowing that he did.

' _When we're seventeen.'_  Gabriel answered and Harry could hear the slight uncertainty in his counterparts thoughts. ' _We've lost another year.'_

'Oh great,' Harry groaned. 'Until then I guess I can get used to the idea of being more than even two people!' He paused. 'If you say it could be worse...' he trailed off in warning.

Gabriel aborted his sentence in favor of silence, which Harry wasn't sure if that was an improvement or not. Great, he thought to himself. I'm telling myself to shut up! His head gave another pained throb and Harry forced himself to remain quiet as he laid on his rather shabby bed, staring at the stained ceiling in Dudley's second bedroom.

' _We need to get out of here,'_ Gabriel said after a few minutes. ' _Being worked to death and aggravating our already bad injury isn't helping us any.'_

'We'll make a break for it in the morning,' Harry conceded. 'I'll use the opportunity to get Vernon to sign my permission slip for Hogsmeade. He'll probably jump on the chance to get us gone before Aunt Marge gets here.'

Gabriel was silent and Harry took that to mean that he agreed with the plan. Reluctant to close his eyes, where he would most likely gain even more memories, Harry closed his eyes after he determined that not sleeping wouldn't help him any either.

He was asleep only minutes later.

* * *

Harry had been right, Vernon had jumped at the chance. The slip was signed without hesitation before shoved into Harry's hands along with strict orders to be gone before Vernon got back from work. Harry complied, packing up all of his things into his trunk, throwing on some clean robes, before trekking outside to the curb of the street.

It had turned out that Harry had been born in this particular universe more than the twice that he had known about. One of the influxes of memories had belonged to a woman version of himself who had died when she was thirty, after the defeat of Grindelwald but before the rise of Voldemort. It seemed that unlike what he had assumed, Harry wasn't getting the memories in any real order. That or he was being reincarnated all over the time stream of each universe.

'Twelve going on ninety,' Harry remarked absently in his head, Gabriel humming in agreement. Harry didn't feel like a child anymore, not like he had when he'd arrived at Hogwarts or even how he had felt just the year before. Grasping his wand in his hand, Harry held it up straight out.

He was rewarded with a band that signaled the arrival of the Knight Bus, although instead of being a dark purple color that Harry had associated with it, the bus was a red color that resembled the muggle buses that he had seen in London the few times he had been there. _'So it changes color in the daytime?'_  Gabriel wondered. Harry didn't have an answer, just shrugging in reply as the doors of the bus folded open.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus," a tall, rather skinny man greeted him, brown hair somewhat covering his eyes. "Fine Wizarding Transport since..." the man finally looked at Harry, his eyes bulging when he caught sight of Harry's scar. "Ern! Wake up, Ern! Harry Potter is standing next to the Knight Bus!"

'Great,' Harry sighed inwardly. 'Fans.'

"Names Stanley Shunpike!" The conductor told him, seemingly pleased at just being able to talk to him. "Where ya headed, Mr. Potter?"

"The Leaky Cauldron, please?" Harry asked, glad that the man had begun asking him all the questions he could about his scar, what he remembered, or worse, for his autograph. Lockhart the year before had been bad enough.

 _'Speaking of said annoying professor,'_  Gabriel interjected. _'I don't remember seeing him before the end of the year. Sure, exams were cancelled and all, but he still should have shown up for the leaving feast, shouldn't he have?'_

Harry didn't remember seeing him there either but was distracted from his response as he caught his first sight of the Knight Bus's interior. Instead of the beds and blankets, the inside actually look like a normal bus. Harry had never used the bus during the daytime in his previous lives and hadn't known that it had different setting for each. Either way, the inside of the bus was decent looking and Harry sat down on the nearest booth seat while Stanley levitated his trunk into the bus.

"To the Leaky Cauldron, Ern!" Stan called out to the driver and Harry fought to hold onto his seat as the bus took off at breakneck speeds. Harry watched in interest as muggle vehicles seemed to swerve out of the way of the bus before righting themselves as soon as they were past them. From the lack of reaction any of the muggles they passed showed, Harry doubted that any of them could even see the bus.

Either way, they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron only minutes after Harry had gotten on the bus and the black haired wizard was impressed by how fast the had gotten there, though he wasn't sure why seeing as he had used the bus in other lives.  _'Best not think too much on it,'_  Gabriel suggested and Harry accepted the advice, putting those thoughts into the back of his head to revisit later.

Stan helped Harry carry his trunk off the bus, happily accepting the money that Harry passed to him to pay for the ride. They waited for him to be inside the Leaky Cauldron before they took off, a loud bang their final goodbye.

"Hello there, Harry!" Tom called over to him and Harry was surprised to see very little people there. "What can I do for you?"

"Hello Tom," Harry smiled back, feeling more and more like himself already. "I was hoping to rent a room for the rest of the summer. My relatives are visiting my cousin's aunt; her and I don't get on that well so they were hoping I could stay here for the rest of break."

Something flashed in Tom's eyes and Harry knew that the barkeeper was displeased with Harry's mostly true story. "It would be my pleasure," Tom told him with a smile. The barkeeper turned around, fiddling with some keys before grabbing one. "The room is at the end of the hallway to the right," Tom told him as he handed Harry the key. "I'll be up in a little while to check on you. Feel free to unpack while you wait."

 _'Well,'_  Gabriel commented dryly as they moved to head to their new room. _'Next time you might want consider using less truth. I don't think Tom appreciated hearing that our relatives abandoned us for the rest of break.'_

'Why should I lie?' Harry wondered as he unlocked the room and pulled his trunk with him inside. 'The Dursley's are horrible. They hate me, I hate them.'

 _'Lying about these things can come back to bite us,'_  Gabriel grudgingly agreed, still displeased.  _'But if we end up with an even worse family, I'm blaming you.'_

'I'm told blaming yourself gets you nowhere,' Harry retorted, silencing his counterpart due to his reply. Before now, Harry had been careful about what he said, even in the privacy of his own mind where only Gabriel could hear him.

 _'Huh,'_  Gabriel mused. _'Looks like those memories have done some good after all. It's about time that we come out of our shell.'_

"If you say so," Harry mumbled out loud, pulling out only the essential clothing and his homework for now. He didn't want to chance having to pack everything up again if he wasn't able to stay as long as he hoped. He had just finished setting the books on the desk by the door when he heard someone knocking.

That was fast, Harry thought as he opened the door to see Tom with a handful of towels in his hands. "Thought you might need these," Tom told him as he handed over the towels. "This is one of our long term rooms; we don't get many long term tenants so I wasn't sure if it was stocked."

"Thanks, Tom." Harry grinned at the man and moved to place the stack on the dresser, the barkeeper stepping into the room as he did so.

"If you need anything, feel free to ask," Tom told him, looking around the room as if to inspect it. "Your bill won't be given until you leave and meals are included into the price of the room, so feel free to eat in the diner when you're hungry."

Harry nodded at the man, thanking him again as the barkeeper left, closing the door behind him. Flopping down on the bed in the room, Harry stared at the ceiling, his thoughts turning to last summer, before he had met Gabriel. He'd been so different then and Harry could scarcely believe that less than a year had changed him so much.

 _'It might be less than a year time wise,'_  Gabriel began.  _'But with your memories that you've regained in that time period, more than two hundred years have passed since then. The fact that you're still mostly the same person says a lot about who our reincarnations were.'_

'But I'm still not the same person. If Dobby was to show up now with the same warning, I would probably interrogate him instead of letting him talk,' Harry pointed out.

 _'Suspicion is good,'_  Gabriel countered.  _'Suspicion is what is going to keep us alive. Voldemort has somehow split his soul and I doubt he only did it the one time. I also doubt that he's going to leave us alone anytime soon and we're vulnerable as we are right now. He could take us out easily.'_

'What do you want us to do?' Harry snapped back. 'If you haven't noticed, we aren't even thirteen yet! Our body is too young to learn some of the magic that our memories have and I really don't think that we'll be able to pull anything big using Grace, seeing as it almost killed us quicker that the Basilisk venom would have!'

'Then we need to brush up on our other skills,' Gabriel told him evenly. 'We have the knowledge on how to wield a sword and we have more than a few other weapon skills in our memories. We lack the muscle memory and the training to use it properly but that's all we lack.'

'Somehow I don't think we're going to be able to carry around a sword unnoticed.' Harry rubbed his temples, his head throbbing.

 _'We don't need to carry around a sword,'_  Gabriel said, his voice mischievous in nature.  _'That influx of Grace may have nearly killed us but it also gave us an advantage; we now have enough Grace in our system to access our sword.'_

A flash of metal hitting metal, different from any metal that Harry had ever seen appeared in his head. It didn't look like any sword he had ever seen before, resembling an icepick more than traditional swords with its handle carved with runes that Harry felt he should knew yet he couldn't comprehend them. 'Yes,' Gabriel sounded pleased. 'That sword. Focus on it and call it to you. It should come.'

Harry closed his eyes, pausing the image in his minds eye as he tried to call the sword into his hand. He focused on the feeling of carved metal in his palm and the tingle of lightning as he swung it. He could feel a static in the air that wasn't there before and kept the image in his mind, willing the sword, his sword to answer him.

Harry fought back a scream as his back ripped open at the same time metal appeared in his hand. There was no blood and his skin remained unblemished as he reached his hand up to grab as the skin of his back in shock. The fabric wasn't even disturbed above his hand and yet at his shoulder blades, Harry could feel two new appendages that hadn't been there before.

Whipping around with his eyes now wide open, Harry stared into the mirror, eyes focused on the two large, looming wings that were spread behind him. Green and gold feathers decorated the appendages and Harry could have sworn that they were glowing a faint white light that was eerily reminiscent of the part of his mind where Gabriel resided.  _'I did not expect that to happen,'_  Gabriel commented, his voice suddenly louder than Harry had ever heard it before.  _'I guess Cassie did still have his wings when he was depowered and swinging around that sword...'_

'We have wings,' Harry said as he reached out in what looked to be an attempt to touch the mirror. 'Why...how...'

 _'Like I've said before,'_  Gabriel interrupted before Harry could have a complete breakdown.  _'Perks of being what we are.'_

Harry had never asked, had never even thought to ask, and felt stupid for not asking before now. 'What are we?'

Gabriel was silent and Harry could practically feel his counterpart considering whether or not to tell him. It was also becoming apparent that Gabriel was deliberately hiding that information from him and Harry couldn't even begin to guess why. _'Are you sure that you want to know?'_  Gabriel finally asked, sounding unsure of himself with a hint of fear in his voice.  _'Do you honestly want to know what we are? Could you even accept what we are?'_

Harry was the one that fell silent this time. Did he want to know? Could he accept it, whatever they were? He didn't know yet he also knew that if he wasn't ready now, when he was split between being multiple people, he would never be ready and he for one didn't want to stay in this state of half-being. 'If I'm not then I never will be,' Harry told him confidently.

 ** _'We are Gabriel,'_**  his memories given consciousness said, his voice ringing out in their head. ' ** _We are the Messenger, he who stands in the presence of God and takes the Word of God unto the world. We are old, older than the universes in which we have lived, older than the oldest of the seraphs. We are one of the Pillars of Heaven. We are Gabriel, Archangel of God's army!'_**

The room was filled with static and Harry gasped as his newly grown wings spread out intimidatingly, as if in response to a threat that he could not see. Harry's mind was rapidly turning, taking in everything that Gabriel...that he had told himself. The sword in his hand grew warm under his touch and Harry watched as his eyes glowed a bright white in the mirror. Harry opened his mouth to speak. "We are Gabriel," he tested the words out and his eyes dimmed back to their emerald green color, his wings lowering themselves and the warmth of his sword disappearing as he looked at his reflection.

 _'Good,'_  Gabriel, or his memories of being Gabriel, said in his mind. Harry could have sworn that the Archangel (holy shit, he was an angel) sounded relieved.  _'If you had reacted badly then it was possible that we could have self destructed right here.'_

Harry paused, his eyes growing impossibly wide. "Self-destructed?!" he hissed, just barely able to keep from squeaking. 'If that was a possibility then why did you tell me?!' He demanded.

 _'Like you said,'_  Gabriel said and Harry could almost see the smug grin. _'If you couldn't accept it now than it was likely that you'd never be able to. Best to just get it over with.'_

Harry thought it over, mulling over the truthfulness in those words. "So," he said out loud, raising the sword in his hands to eye level. "How do I use this?"

Gabriel laughed in his head and Harry got a strange sense of foreboding. I'm going to regret asking that, he thought to himself as Gabriel's laughter turned into mad cackling.

* * *

It turned out that learning how to reuse a sword was harder than Harry had thought it would be. He didn't know if it was because he was still growing or that his newly regrown pair of wings were throwing off his balance, but Harry ended up on the floor face first more often than not. His reflexes were decent for his age and his senses were better than anyone else in the Wizarding World but his sense of balance was shot to hell.

Learning to use his sword wasn't the only thing Harry had to do either. With Gabriel's instructions, Harry was slowly learning how to move his wings without getting distracted due to their presence on his back. It was a slow work in progress and Harry was getting increasingly frustrated which showed as his feather ruffled in irritation, causing him even further distraction due to the odd feeling that he was not yet used to.

The emergence of his wings and his manifestation of his sword had one good outcome: he was no longer having an influx of memories every night. In fact, he had yet to regain any new memories, the ones he had already regained playing in his dreams instead, seemingly trying to merge with his other memories better than they had before.

 _'That's because our Grace was overflowing and trying to force the merge faster than we were able to handle,'_  Gabriel explained during one of their wing practice sessions.  _'Now that Grace as an outlet in the form of our wings. Think of it like a faucet sink that's been plugged up. The water has nowhere else to go so it tips over the side but when you unplug the sink, it easily drains out. You were the sink and our Grace was the water with our wings acting like the drain.'_

Harry had a feeling that Gabriel's explanation wasn't the best one out there. He didn't pay it much mind, though, as it had managed to get the point across and Harry felt more than a bit of relief that they weren't at too much risk of burning out anymore. They were still ahead of schedule and Harry could look forward to remembering everything when he turned seventeen, yet they weren't in danger of killing everyone around them at any given moment anymore. Ahead of schedule but not dangerously so.

The summer days passed quickly now that Harry had something to occupy his time with. His birthday was announced with the arrival of gifts from his friends. Ron and his family had gotten to go to Egypt to visit Bill after their father had won the lottery and his redheaded friend had also gotten a new wand. He sent Harry a sneak-o-scope. Hermione had sent him a broom care kit that had him smiling and putting in his trunk next to his Quidditch stuff. The Twins had sent him, incredibly, a knife along with a book on how to use it. It seemed that they didn't like that fact that he had been defenseless without his wand in the chamber.

He got a cake from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley that came with a letter that wished him well. Ginny had sent him what looked like a hand-carved Basilisk, which he put with the hand-carved flute and the scene of Hope and her foals immediately. He bemoaned the fact that he had nowhere to display them but promised that he would find the perfect place as soon as he no longer lived with the Dursley's. Hagrid had sent up stack of photos that featured Hope and him, the foals, and him playing with the foals. Harry nearly smacked his head as he remembered that he had gotten his own camera for Christmas the year before, along with a photo album to put them in. Digging through his trunk, he pulled out the book and placed each of the photo's in a slot as carefully as he could.

Hagrid had also sent him a book with a note attached. Harry blinked as the book, snarled and snapped at him when he touched it before jumped out of his hands and running across the floor. Harry quickly grabbed the note, which had fallen to the floor, and read it over.  ** _Thought you might need this. Stroke the spine to calm it down. -Hagrid._**  Harry dropped the note on the bed and got down on both knees. "Come on little guy," he cooed to the book, ignoring the feeling of ridiculousness as he did so. "I'm not going to hurt you."

The book shuffled forward as the pixies, who had been living in Harry's trunk since they had escaped from Lockhart the year before, landed on the floor next to him. Harry had wondered if they were still in there, the two having been so quiet and well behaved since they had first met him. "That's it," Harry encouraged the book, the two pixies chirping their own encouragements until  _The Monster Book of Monsters  _was sitting nicely in front of the thirteen year old wizard. Harry reached his hand down, grinning as the book let him touch it. Stroking the book's spine in reward, Harry laughed as it purred.

"I guess I know who the Care of Magical Creatures professor is," Harry commented as he made a small bed out of towels for the book on the floor. Hedwig flew down to the floor to study the book curiously, hooting in acceptance as the book didn't try to eat her. Luckily, none of his other presents were sentient and the rest of the day was spent trimming his broom and eating cake.

His birthday was the only interlude in his sword and wing practice. Gabriel was determined to get their muscle memory back as soon as the could and Harry had to agree with him. Out of the two years that he had spent in Hogwarts. Harry had nearly died twice. Now he had an advantage that most people couldn't even see and he doubted that Voldemort or whoever else decided to attack him, would expect him to pull out a sword from nowhere.

In what seemed like a blink of an eye, the summer was nearly over and the Weasley's were visiting him in the Leaky Cauldron as they waited for Hermione so that they could go shopping together. Harry congratulated Percy for making Head Boy, the seventh year blushing as Harry complimented him. After all, he had gone with Hermione to try and tell the professor's about her discovery even knowing that there was a Basilisk on the loose in the castle. If that didn't scream dedication, nothing did.

The shopping was more interesting that Harry could have hoped for. Hermione bought a new cat named Crookshanks, who seemed to be able to see Harry's wings as the cat batted at them whenever he was within reach. Harry was just happy that the cat didn't seem to be able to touch them as his paw went through the area where they should be every time. _'They aren't part of the physical world,'_  Gabriel told him when Harry asked. ' _Certain people can see them and other angels can touch them but other than that, for all intents and purposes they aren't even there.'_

'Wow,' Harry said, glancing at the wings in the reflection of a shop window. Ron was complaining about Hermione's new cat as he kept his rat, Scabbers, away from intelligent seeking eyes. Harry had to wonder if attacking rats was a cat thing as Crookshanks hadn't seemed bothered by any of the other mice in the pet store.

He was distracted from those thoughts as they entered the bookstore and Harry had to comfort a nearly sobbing shopkeeper as he sobbed, apparently having been mauled by most of  _The Monster Book of Monsters_  that had come in for the new year. The shopkeeper seemed to sob all that harder when Harry offered to teach the man how to handle the books.

Several minutes later and Harry was surrounded by purring books and teaching the shopkeeper (Harry felt rather bad for the already mauled man) how to stroke their spines in a way that would make the books putty in his hands. The discount on all of their school books that earned them was a surprisingly generous amount and Ron was pleased to find out that he actually had leftover money when they finally completed their shopping.

They headed to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor last, each of them ordering a different flavor of ice cream. Harry order their death by chocolate after the urging of Gabriel and was more than pleased with the ice cream as they ate in happy silence.

"Excuse me," the voice of a young girl broke the silence and Harry turned to look at a blond girl with radish earrings. "Did you know that there are pixies in your robe?"

Ron and Hermione stared, craning their necks to see two pleased pixies munching on bits of ice cream cone that Harry had broken off for them. "I'd forgotten about them," Ron marveled as he looked at the blue pixies. Harry didn't blame them, the two having been as well behaved as they were.

"I did tell them they could stay as long as they behaved," Harry reminded him. Ron shrugged in response, going back to his ice cream. It seemed that the pixies didn't bother him as much as they used to. Harry fought back laughter as Tinker and Havoc began playing what looked like a game of tag around his shoulders, looking more than comfortable being the middle of the Diagon Alley shopping crowd.

"That's very kind of you," the girl said dreamily. "Letting them stay."

Harry was the one who shrugged now. "They're cute," he told her, echoing Gabriel's words from the year before. The pixies chirped in pleasure from his pocket, pleased at the compliment.

"It was nice to meet you, Harry Potter." The girl told him, her expression still as dreamy as it had been when she had first appeared. "Your wings are very pretty."

Harry froze and he felt Gabriel jerk to attention in the back of their mind. ' _Well I'll be,'_  Gabriel mused as they watched the girl walk away. _'I didn't expect to run into one of those here.'_

'Those?' Harry asked as Ron and Hermione began arguing about Scabbers and Crookshanks again.

 _'A human that's gifted with the Sight.'_  Gabriel told him.  _'Not a prophet but still able to see things that most other people can't. It's rare, though.'_

"Who was she?" Harry asked aloud, catching his two friend's attentions.

"Her?" Ron asked, finishing up his ice cream. "Her name's Luna Lovegood. She doesn't live too far from the Burrow and her dad run the Quibbler. Most just call her Looney, though."

That was rather cruel, Harry thought angrily as he watched the girl walk into the bookshop with the laughter of some older students following her. 'I hate people like that,' Harry growled silently, not liking how Luna was being treated at all.

 _'You and me both,'_  Gabriel said.

Thoughts of Luna disappeared from his mind as he overhead Mr. and Mrs. Weasley talking later that night and learned about Sirius Black, the man who was said to be Voldemort's right hand man and had broken out of Azkaban, the most secure Wizarding Prison in the world. The only one to ever break out and they thought he was coming after Harry.

 _'Great,'_  Gabriel grumbled as they arrived securely in their room  _'I'm beginning to see a theme here and I don't like it.'_

Harry couldn't agree more.


	15. Chapter 15

Boarding the Hogwarts Express on September First was just as rushed as always, the twins running off to meet with their friend Lee Jordan while Percy hugged his parents goodbye and hurried to the prefect compartment, his Head Boy badge displayed on his robe proudly. Ginny, though, remained with him and Ron as they went to search for an empty compartment to wait for Hermione. Harry didn't mind, though, seeing as Ginny had made almost no friends last year because of her possession by Tom Riddle.

Their usual compartment was filled with what looked like first years so with a sigh, the three went to find an empty compartment. It seemed that they hadn't needed too as Hermione flagged them down soon after, having grabbed a mostly empty compartment already.

It was mostly empty do to the fact that there was a grown man sleeping on one side of the benches on the compartment, wearing ragged robes and looking as if a good shave wouldn't be out of the question. The magic on the man, however, was strange to look at and Harry frowned as it seemed to actually take the form of an animal for a second. 'Weird,' he thought as he attempted to catch a glimpse of the animal again with no luck.

' _Very,'_  Gabriel agreed.

"Who is he?" Ron asked, eyeing the man in curiosity. The brown haired sleeping man didn't stir at Ron's voice and stayed fast alseep.

"Professor R.J. Lupin," Hermione answered promptly and the two redheads turned to look at her in surprise. Hermione just rolled her eyes. "Honestly, it's on his suitcase!"

So it was, Harry blinked reading the engraved name plank in silence. The trunk was worn and looked older than the professor himself. Harry wondered if the man was using the trunk for sentimental reasons or financial reason, as it looked like the trunk had four names carved into the old leather.

"How have you both been?" Hermione asked and they descended into conversation from there.

Ron had all sorts of tales to tell them about Egypt while Hermione had gone to France for the holiday and had her own fair share of stories to tell them. In comparison, Harry's summer was rather boring (ignoring the whole archangel of the lord revelation) and Harry contented himself with listening to everything that Hermione had learned as well as the pranks that the Twins had pulled.

His trunk shook a bit above his head and Harry blink as he realized that he'd hadn't yet let out Havoc and Tinker. Standing up on the compartment booth, Harry unlatched his trunk and two blue pixies filtered out into the room followed closely by  _The Monster Book of Monsters_. The book practically pounced on Harry, purring as its spine was stroked.

Hermione giggled at his and Harry shrugged, settling the book on his lap to pet. Crookshanks, Hermione's new cat, came over to sniff at the book before deciding that it wasn't a threat and returning to her owners lap. "I'm beginning to see a pattern," the bushy haired girl teased. "Two pixies and our sentient Care of Magical Creatures book. What are you going to adopt next?"

Harry stuck his tongue out at her and laughed when his book did the same. Ron and Ginny nearly fell over themselves laughing as Hermione giggled happily in her seat. "That reminds me," she said suddenly. "What electives are you both taking?"

Ron had signed up for Care of Magical Creatures and Divination as he thought that they would be easy O's. Hermione gave him her most disapproving look before turning to Harry. She looked pleased when she learned that he had signed up for Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes. Talking to Bill and Charlie at Christmas last year had made Harry more than interested in each subject. That Hagrid was now teaching the class was a surprise bonus and he couldn't wait to see how the large man handled having his own class.

Hermione, much to Harry's shock, had signed up for everything. "'Mione," Harry said as she finished explaining why she had chosen each of the classes. "You're going to burn yourself out if you do all of those classes! Do you really need Divination and Muggle Studies?"

Hermione frowned at him. "But wouldn't learning how to tell the future be incredibly useful? And it would be fascinating to learn how wizards see muggles!"

Harry looked at Ron, who was rolling his eyes. "Hey mate," Harry said, catching his friends attention. "Why don't you tell 'Mione why you think Divination is an easy O?"

Ron blinked, frowned, before nodding after he caught on to what Harry was doing. The thirteen year old wizard had done some research on the subject over the summer and had learned that Divination was basically useless if you weren't gifted with the sight ('Or if you weren't a prophet,' Gabriel interjected) and other than Luna, he hadn't met anyone in their school who had the sight. Ron began explaining as much to an increasingly annoyed bushy haired girl.

"Then why don't they tell us that before we sign up?!" the girl demanded, angry. "If it's such a waste of time, surely the professors will want to make sure that the time of the students isn't wasted!"

Harry shrugged. "It's not like I know," he reminded her. "I just know that all authors agree: Divination is useless if you don't have the sight. That's why Arithmancy was invented."

Hermione sighed sadly and nodded. "I'll ask Professor McGonagall to drop the class after the feast," she muttered, rather disappointed.

"You should drop muggle studies too," Harry told her but he knew it was a lost cause when she just huffed at him.

"Look on the bright side, 'Mione," Ron said in an attempt to cheer their friend up. "You'll still have the book to study even if you drop the class."

Hermione did perk up a bit at that and Harry shared a grin with Ginny as they watched the two. "I wonder when they'll figure it out," Harry whispered to the girl and was rewarded with a giggle.

Their conversations died down when the train came halting to a stop, the lights flickering out as it did so. "What happened?!" Ron asked and Harry could only just see the glow of his magic in the oppressing darkness that had suddenly filled the train. That alone set off all kinds of alarm bells in Harry's head and Gabriel was alert in their mind as they waited for whatever was going to happen to happen.

A cold presence began filling the room and Harry's became visible as the air grew icy around them. He could hear Ginny sobbing quietly from right next to him and he could see Ron and Hermione shrink in on themselves. There was a distinct ringing in Harry's ears as faint pictures of people he had never met seemed to be standing before him, their voices a near whisper in his mind.

Suddenly the sleeping professor was awake, his wand pointed at a skeletal creature that was floating in the door. Gabriel was shuddering in his mind and Harry felt his body echoing him, seemingly unable to stop the rapid shudders that wracked his frame. "None of us are hiding Sirius Black underneath our robes!" The professor told the creature forcefully. "Leave!"

The creature didn't listen to the man, advancing menacingly into the room, its head turned in the direction of Harry.  _'Move!'_  Gabriel yelled in their mind.  _'Get out of here now!'_

He was about to do just that, his body tensing as he readied himself to make a break for it, when a golden light filled the room and the creature screeched, flying backwards as quick as it could until it was out of the compartment altogether and fleeing down the corridor. Professor Lupin lowered his wand, the tip still glowing brightly as it warded off the creature.

Near silence filled the room, Ron attempting to comfort his still sobbing sister and Hermione moving over to rub Harry's back soothingly as the shudders began to fade away. "What was that thing?" he croaked, Gabriel silent and tense in their mind.

"A Dementor," the professor answered, his voice surprisingly smooth despite how gruff and ragged the man looked. "They guard Azkaban prison. I suspect that they searched the train in search of Sirius Black."

"Why would Black be on the Hogwarts Express?" Ron demanded, looking more protective of Ginny than Harry had ever seen the other boy. The redheaded boy was nearly wrapped around his sister as if he could ward off any threats to her by hiding her from sight. Ginny didn't seem to mind all that much as she leaned into her brother's protective hold.

Lupin didn't answer but Harry saw his eyes flicker over to look at Harry. The black haired boy pretended not to notice and only half listened as Lupin informed them to stay in their compartments while he went to talk to the conductor.

Once the man was gone, Harry quickly told them all what he had overheard from Mr. Weasley earlier in the week. Ron seemed to grow red in anger the more he heard and Hermione's face fell as she realized that another year at Hogwarts had brought yet another threat. Ginny seemed to calm, her face still pale but fixed into a mask of determination. "Black won't get anywhere near you!" the girl proclaimed, brown eyes gleaming in promise of pain should he even try.

Ron seemed about ready to burst from anger. "Why the bloody hell is someone always after you?!" He finally exploded. "Those Dementors aren't about to help! Is the Ministry daft? That thing was just about as ready to attack you as it would be Black!"

Harry rather agreed with the redhead and he could hear from Gabriel's rather inventive curses that the archangel did as well. "The Minister is the one that threw Hagrid into Azkaban so he could be seen doing something," Harry reminded the redhead while Hermione looked scandalized at the very thought of someone in power doing that. Harry had forgotten that she had already been pertrified by that point in time and he didn't envy her, having to find everything out after the face. He doubted that he would have been as okay with it as she seemed to be.

Professor Lupin returned before they could discuss anything else, carrying a pile of chocolate in his hand. He passed one out to each of them. "Eat these," he told them. "Chocolate helps negate the effects of Dementors. You'll feel better."

Harry opened the chocolate frog he was handed, catching it quickly with his hand and taking a bite out of the squirming candy. The feeling of cold immediately faded from his body and warmth took its place. Harry felt his wings wrap around him in an attempt at comfort, one that he wasn't sure whether or not it was from him or from Gabriel.

It didn't take long for the Express to arrive at the station and Harry felt slightly bitter that if they Dementors had waited fifteen minutes, he might not have been forced to deal with them.  _'There's something off about them,'_  Gabriel said as Harry picked up his book (he'd have to give it a name as referring to it by title or by 'it' just felt wrong) and motioned for the pixies to get inside his pockets as they filed out of the compartment. Professor Lupin gave Havoc and Tinker an odd look but didn't comment, waiting until they were all out of the compartment before sliding the door closed as he was the last to leave.

Walking towards the carriages that would take them up to the school, Harry jerked in surprise when he saw winged skeletal horses hooked up to the front of the carriages. 'What are those?!' Harry asked in surprise, making sure not to say anything aloud as no one else gave any sign of seeing the gaunt horses.

 _'No idea,'_  Gabriel replied. Their wings ruffled in agitation on their back and Harry shuddered as the appendages went through Ron's shoulder as if it wasn't even there. The feeling greatly reminded him of walking through a ghost.  _'You'll get used to it,'_  the archangel tried to reassure him but Harry wasn't sure he could ever get used to that strange feeling.

Climbing into the carriage, Harry pulled his wings in until they were wrapped tightly around himself, glad that the others couldn't see them as they would be obscuring his face if they could. 'Another year, another threat,' Harry remarked as the carriage passed a floating Dementor.

 _'I really wish this wasn't a theme,'_  Gabriel bemoaned and Harry agreed, clutching his book just a tad bit tighter to his chest, fingers stroking the spine in an effort to calm himself.

So much for being the safest place in the world.

* * *

Dumbledore didn't shed any light onto the situation with the Dementors and warned them not to sneak around the school while that Azkaban guards were here. The Headmaster sounded displeased with the presence of the horrible creatures and most of the school seemed to take his warning to heart; even the Twins looked more serious than Harry had ever seen them.

With that word of warning, the feast began and Harry carefully cleared a spot for Ruth (the only name that his copy of  _The Monster Book of Monsters_  seemed to like) who purred as it stole a bit of his potatoes. Harry wasn't sure how it was possible for Ruth to eat but he decided not to question it for the sake of his own sanity.  _'We have sanity?_ ' Gabriel wondered.  _'We talk to ourselves on a regular basis and we've adopted a sentient book for a friend, not to mention the two pixies that now live in our pockets. Sanity left a long time ago.'_

'Hush,' Harry shushed him as the people around them began to stare. Harry just shrugged at them before beginning to eat his own meal. It wasn't like he hadn't done stranger things previous years (like inviting Havoc and Tinker to stay with them in the first place). "What ever happened to Lockhart, anyways?" Harry asked as Lupin was introduced as the new Defense Professor.

"I forgot that you wouldn't know," Ron blinked at him. "The pansy claimed that he had known where the Chamber was the entire time. Snape-"

"Professor Snape," Hermione corrected and Harry had to wonder why she even bothered anymore. Harry would show respect to the man when he earned it and not a moment before. Being a Professor and acting the way he was, Harry very much doubted that would ever happen. _'Asshole needs a severe attitude adjustment,'_  Gabriel gripped in their mind and Harry felt his wings ruffle themselves in what was probably agreement. It would take awhile before he got the new body language that they brought with them.

"Yeah, him," Ron nodded to her and she huffed at his blatant dismissal of the man. "He suggested that if Lockhart knew where the Chamber was that the fraud should go save Ginny. That cowardly peacock was gone before morning. Packed up and just left. The papers are all talking about it and Mum's gone and burned his books. Seems that she didn't like that he left Ginny to die. Bloke better hopes that she never finds him."

"Well at least something good came out of it," Harry muttered and Ron shot him a grin. They turned to look at Ginny, who was being hugged by a babbling Colin, the boy reassuring her that he didn't blame her at all. It seemed that Ginny hadn't lost that friendship, at least.

"I for one don't miss him one bit," Hermione grumbled and Harry had to fight with himself to keep from teasing her. She had, had a crush on the man the year before and it was rare that Hermione was ever wrong. "His classes were absolute rubbish! I don't think I learned a single spell from that man!"

The ultimate sin in the world of Hermione Granger: a professor not teaching properly. Not that they didn't deal with that everyday in potions but the fact that she had vouched for the blond haired pounce didn't seem to be sitting well with her.  _'At least Lupin seems like he'll be an alright Professor,'_  Gabriel said, sounding hopeful.  _'He'll have a lot to make up for, though.I don't think we've learned anything worthwhile in Defense since our first year and he has to deal with the Fifth and Seventh years as well. Getting them ready for their OWLS and NEWTS is going to suck.'_

'I definitely don't envy him any,' Harry grimaced at the thought. It was a good thing he had just read most of Lockhart's classes away. Besides the Ravenclaws, he bet that none of his other yearmates had even thought of that. 'Snape seems to hate him.' He blinked in surprise at the venomous glare his potions professor was sending the new DADA teacher. 'Wonder how they know each other.'

 _'Well Snape's a glorified bully so anyone he dislikes is alright with me,'_  Gabriel said gleefully.  _'Judging from their ages, I would say that they went to school together.'_

Harry frowned around his mashed potatoes. 'How can you tell?'

 _'See the way their magic is so bright around their chests?'_  Gabriel asked. Harry nodded, pretending to be paying attention to Ron and Hermione's conversation.  _'Well, that isn't magic. That's their soul. Soul reading is rather easy and I'll teach you how to do it later but for now, I'd say that Snape and Lupin are less than a year apart in age. They probably were in first year together.'_

'Huh,' Harry thought and studied the glowing light that he now knew was a soul instead of magic. 'I guess that makes sense. If Snape was a Slytherin, I bet that Professor Lupin was a Gryffindor.'

 _'With the way Slytherins and Gryffindors fight?'_  Gabriel snorted. ' _I'm not taking that bet even if you paid me to.'_

Harry held back laughter, smiling brightly instead, listening to his housemates around him laugh and joke.

It was nice to be home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for how long updates took. I was having some trouble with my internet (again) and for some reason, it wouldn't let me post new chapters...all fixed now (even if I have no idea how)! Hopefully this won't happen again but if it does, this can also be found on ff.net which I don't usually have any problems with (unless I loose internet completely, in which case, nothing works).
> 
> Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try my best to answer them!


	16. Chapter 16

The school year began like it had every other year with the addition of their new elective classes. Harry was also grateful to see that Professor Lupin proved to be much more competent that Lockhart or Quirrell had been, actually going as far as locating certain magical creatures and bringing them to class to teach them how to deal with them. The only thing that irked Harry was the fact that the Defense Professor had kept him from facing the Boggart during their first class. Even then, Lupin had a valid reason for stopping him.  _'Let's face it,'_  Gabriel had sighed after hearing the explanation.  _'Most people would assume that Voldemort would be our Boggart as well.'_

The truth was that with so many memories, neither Harry nor Gabriel knew what their Boggart would be. It definitely wasn't Voldemort (and wouldn't have been even if Harry had never touched that tree) but that was all that was certain. There were many things in Harry's memories that frightened him and if that thing could read minds and seek out fears as well as Lupin had alluded to, then it might even be able to pick up on Gabriel's fears.

'Which would be even worse than having a psychotic Dark Lord appearing in the classroom.' Their wings had shuddered at the very thought, the movement still causing odd tingles in his back whenever his wings moved.

Harry had to agree and sometimes even wondered if he wanted to have him memories back completely. Don't get him wrong, he wanted to be whole again but he had caught glimpses of his past as Gabriel before and he didn't much like what he saw.

His spirits were lifted, however, when he made his way with Hermione and Ron down to Care of Magical Creatures, Ruth purring happily in his arms.

"Mate," Ron asked as they walked, his own book looking rather pleased to see Harry. "Is that book purring at you?"

Hermione looked both amused and exasperated at the book that was cuddling in Harry's arms. Harry just gave Ron a grin, not bothering to reply as they arrived at Hagrid's hut just in time for the class to begin. "Alright, all ye follo' meh!" Hagrid called out to them. Harry noted with annoyance that Malfoy and his goons had also decided to take this class, snickering as Neville's book tried to eat him. Sighing, Harry promised himself to help the accident prone boy once they got to wherever Hagrid was taking them.

Speaking of which, Hagrid seemed to be leading them into the Forbidden Forest. Harry himself didn't have any problem with this but he could already hear the Slytherin's muttering complaints underneath their breaths.  _'If they even try to mess this up,'_  Gabriel threatened emptily. There really wasn't anything they could do about it even if the Slytherin's did try to mess up Hagrid's first class.

"Right, here we are!" Hagrid called out as they reached a clearing not to far into the forest. Harry could even still see the castle from where they were standing. "Now open yeh books ta page-"

"How?" Malfoy sneered. Hagrid cut his sentence off, turning to look at the sneering Slytherin in confusion.

"'Ow what?" the large man asked and Harry could see that Hagrid actually didn't know what he was talking about. Harry had just been about to make his way over to Neville to help him but aborted the motion in favor of seeing how Hagrid dealt with this. As the Grounds Keeper, all the man could do was report incidents to the Head of House and hope that they would take care of the problem.

Now that he was a teacher, however, Hagrid had the authority to assign detentions and take points from the ferret faced pounce but it seemed like Draco had forgotten that small fact. Harry looked forward to seeing that realization shoved down the arrogant teens throat.

"How do we open the blasted things?" Draco demanded again, most of the class grumbling in agreement. It seemed like all of them had gotten their books before Harry had taught the shopkeeper how to open them.

Hagrid looked stunned. "'ave none of yeh open yer book yet?" he asked only to receive positive answers from everyone but Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

"You stroke the spine, Malfoy," Ron finally snapped before snickering. "Or just give it to Harry. They'll never bite again afterwards."

More than a few people turned to look at Harry, who was petting his own purring book as Hermione's tried to climb into his arms. Draco's face was an interesting mix between pissed and stunned as he looked on the rather odd scene. Harry resisted the urge to smirk at the blonde and felt rather proud of himself for succeeding.

With that, the lesson continued. Hagrid introduced them to Buckbeak the hippogriff and Harry was volunteered by the rest of the class to be the one to approach that rather pretty looking creature.  _'Griffin's are better,'_  Gabriel said.  _'But he is rather nice looking for a hippogriff.'_

All things considered, Harry didn't mind all that much when Hagrid picked him up and plopped him on Buckbeak's back. The flight was amazing and Harry's own wings ached to be put to use. If he wasn't in the middle of class, trying to blend in, and confident of his ability to use said wings, Harry just might have spread them and flown next to the hippogriff. It was the first time that he had flown since he'd regained his wings and he could the combined longing of himself and Gabriel to use them.

Then Malfoy did something stupid. Insulting Buckbeak after being warned at the beginning of the lesson that Hippogriff's were very proud creatures and shouldn't be insulted was sheer stupidity and left Harry wondering if the blond moron had paid even a bit of attention to Hagrid's warning at all. It was luck that Harry was still standing close enough to Buckbeak and Malfoy to tackle the blond annoyance out of the way of Buckbeak's attack. Malfoy landed on the ground uninjured and Harry ended up with rather impressive gashes on his arm.

"Are you mentally stupid?" He hissed, ignoring the pain as he focused on Malfoy. "Do you have a death wish? What part of 'hippogriff's are proud and violent creatures when provocated' did you not comprehend?!"

Malfoy didn't answer and just stared at him as if Harry had broken all his expectations in one go. He was looking, Harry realized, at his shoulder. Frowning, Harry turned his head to get a good look at the damage and was more than surprised to see that it was bleeding heavily and soaking into the fabric of his robes. Buckbeak grunted from behind him and Harry was surprised to hear the remorse in the hippogriff's uncertain grunt.

"I'm fine," he assured the concerned creature but was quickly corrected by an irate and worried Hermione who was flanked by Ron.

"You most certainly are not!" she snapped at him before signalling to Hagrid. "We'll take him to the Hospital Wing," she told the rather stunned man. Hagrid quickly gave them the go ahead and Harry found himself being pulled to his feet by the two.

"I'm fine!" he insisted, attempting to pull away. "No need for the hospital wing!" He hated that place. No offense to Madam Pomfrey but he had seen enough of the Hospital Wing during the past two years to last him a lifetime.

Arguing was futile, however, and Harry soon found himself picked up by Hagrid and carried to the Hospital Wing, where Madam Pomfrey stood, seemingly waiting for them.

 _'Well, we aren't getting out of here anytime soon,'_  Gabriel grumbled as the white clad women narrowed her eyes and tutted at them.

* * *

If Harry thought that the school year would get any better after that, he had been sorely mistaken. The first potion's class of the year had certainly proven that and it was obvious that Snape, the bigot, was determined to make up for his rather tame demeanor last year by taking point from Harry for every single thing that the thirteen year old did.

It seemed that the only reason Snape hadn't continued with his rather cruel and spiteful ways the year before were more due to the risk of Harry's magic attacking him out of anger than of any acknowledgement that Harry wasn't the arrogant brat that Snape thought he was. Gabriel was also becoming increasingly furious with how the man was acting and it was a miracle that Harry managed to keep his magic under control.

In fact the only sign of anything being wrong were the way his wings would flare out anytime that Snape came near them. Harry sometimes wished that his wings were tangible, if only to see the look on Snape's face when he was knocked to the ground by the appendages.  _'If only,'_  Gabriel said mournfully and he was forced to content himself with the fact that Snape, despite his best efforts, would never manage to dishearten him.

'I have to wonder why he hates us so much,' Harry sighed after yet another potions class (the second of the year) where the man had done his very best to attack Harry and everything that he stood for. 'What did we ever do to him?'

 _'Don't ask me to explain the minds of assholes,'_  Gabriel grumbled back, their wings twitching with suppressed anger.  _'I would love to give him a large heeping of just deserts.'_

For some reason, Harry got the feeling that 'just deserts' had more meaning that he could currently remember. 'You know,' he began conversationally. 'I'm sure Fred and George would be dying to take advantage of being invisible.'

Gabriel was silent, probably processing what Harry was getting at, before the archangel began cackling merrily.  _'What are we waiting for?'_  he asked and Harry forewent answering in favor of grabbing his cloak and going in search of two redheaded pranksters.

This promised to be fun.

* * *

Fred and George, unsurprisingly, were more than willing to help him get a little payback. They were also more than willing to take advantage of his invisibility cloak, while also bringing another helpful factor to the table: The Marauder's Map, a magical map of Hogwarts that showed all the secret passageways along with telling them where everyone in the castle was at all times.

 _'That would be more than a bit useful,'_  Gabriel commented as they looked at the magic soaked map. The colors were so interwoven that the piece of parchment rather resembled a liquid rainbow. Harry had to blink a few time before the black writing on the parchment became visible against the glow of the magic. Dumbledore was pacing around his office, small footprints following the tag that read 'Albus Dumbledore'. McGonagall's tag was right next to that of Marcus Flint's and Harry assumed that the Slytherin seventh year was either in trouble or discussing his grades in her class (it was NEWTS year for him, after all).

"This is bloody brilliant!" Harry told the Twins, grinning at them. "Where'd you get it?"

"Nicked it from Filch's office our third year!" Fred told him, smirking.

"Was in his confiscation draw," George added. "Figured there had to be more to it than just parchment if it was in there."

"Cool." Harry studied the parchment a little longer. "There's got to be layers of spells on this! I bet it took forever for them to make." From the way the magic seemed to be weaved together like a blanket or well knitted shirt, Harry assumed that whoever the Marauder's were, they paid much more attention in class than they'd probably been given credit (pranksters never were). 'Some of that magic looks familiar, though,' Gabriel mused. Harry had to agree. There was a certain shine to more than one strand of magic in the design that seemed to have a strong sense of familiarity to him, almost as if he should know that magic even though he'd never seen it before in his life. Harry shook his head, frowning as he dismissed the thought. What were the odds of that happening?

"The Chamber isn't on this," Harry mused, catching the attention of the Twins.

"We know," George said mournfully, glancing sadly at the paper.

"We checked as soon as we heard that Ginny was missing," Fred added. "She wasn't anywhere in the range of the map."

Harry frowned before grinning. "If they didn't find the Chamber, I bet there are more than a few passageways that they didn't find either."

Fred and George nodded mournfully. They didn't seem to catch onto Harry's thought process. The map was obviously old as he knew for a fact that some of the passages on this were caved in. The Honeydukes passage was still in use and he didn't think that Filch had found it yet but was there really only two ways into Hogsmeade in this entire castle? Harry doubted it. The Marauder's, whoever they had been, hadn't found every secret in the castle and though the magic on it was done well enough that it had survived however long in Filch's office (assuming that no one had found it before the Twins and had it confiscated later) then they had obviously been talented and had used advanced spells for a student.

"So, black haired brother of ours," Fred began, regaining Harry's attention from his inner musings. "What did you have planned for our dearly hated Potions Professor?"

Harry grinned and told them, watching with satisfaction as their grins steadily grew the more they heard. "Is it manageable?"

"Oh, young naive Harry," George said mournfully, shaking his head in sadness. "It is more than doable!"

"It's positively genius!" Fred added and Harry almost felt bad for the asshole that was Severus Snape...almost.

"What are we waiting for?" George said and Harry let himself be dragged under the cloak by the enthusiastic twins.

With that, the three co-conspirators got to work on setting up their prank, Harry taking care of the more muggle aspects, seeing as the Twins had little to no knowledge on muggles. Gabriel spent most of the time cackling insanely as the worked, giving suggestions here and there on how to improve certain parts of their trap.

It was a good thing that it was a weekend because by the time they had finished, it was nearly four in the morning and they'd yet to sleep any that night. "Snape is going to murder us," George said in awe as they looked at their completed work.

A little bit of magic to help certain things that couldn't be rigged the muggle way and they had created what was essentially a giant version of a mouse trap. It was keyed to Snape's magic, something that Fred and George had rigged up while Harry was busy laying out the glue covered net and rigging it to the bucket filled with hair dye (which he was glad that he had bought during the summer holidays on what at the time seemed to be only a whim) along with a rather generous amount of glitter. Basically, the net would fall when Snape passed under it and the man would then be turned a rather nice shade of pink and covered in glitter.

It wasn't the most elaborate of traps but it was made with so little magic that it would be nearly impossible to trace back to the three pranksters and anyone could have rigged up the muggle aspects of it with the barest of knowledge. The kicker of the entire thing was the second magical part the Fred and George were working on. It was a rather complicated charm that would have various messages displaying on the back of the surely professor's robes depending on who was looking. The best part was that the spell couldn't be dispelled by anyone, not even Fred or George, and would last for at least two weeks.

The three took another few seconds to admire their work before ducking back underneath the invisibility cloak and heading back to the tower, easily avoiding Mrs. Norris and Filch. Harry quickly said goodnight as he darted up into the third year boys dorm and slipped into his bed, unnoticed by his still sleeping roommates.

He couldn't wait to see the look on Snape's face tomorrow and Gabriel was happily cackling in their head, pleased with at least being able to do some sort of payback.

* * *

 _'Oh that was so worth the lack of sleep,'_  Gabriel laughed as they watched a pissed of glittering pink Snape storm into the Great Hall the next morning. The man was swearing up a storm and seemed to simmer even more as the students at every table attempted to keep their laughter to themselves. Harry was suddenly very glad that he had, had practice at the Dursley's, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to keep the laughter in.

The best part was that message charm was working perfectly and to Harry nearly lost it when he read what it was currently displaying: ** Bully Alert! Bully Alert! Keep Away From Small Children!**

'Fred and George are geniuses.' Harry admired the brightly flashing message. Snape didn't seem to notice that it was there yet, to busy blaming (for once, rightly) Harry for his current state and demanding that he (Harry, that is) be expelled for this. It didn't seem to matter that there was absolutely no proof that Harry had anything to do with the prank (even though he so totally did).

"Now Severus," Dumbledore tried to reason with the fuming professor. "There is no proof that Mr. Potter was involved with this." And there wouldn't be either, seeing as Harry had made sure to not cast any spells, making sure nothing could be traced back to him. He wasn't sure why Fred and George hadn't been worried about that but decided that they had probably found a solution to being traced awhile ago (or more likely, they just didn't care).

"I want whoever did they expelled!" The man seemed to realize blaming Harry wasn't going to get him anywhere and changed tactics. "This disrespect of a professor can't go unpunished!"

Hypocrite was the word that seemed to be on the minds of every student in the Great Hall as even most of the Slytherin's seemed to, grudgingly, like Professor Lupin and everyone knew what Snape said about him behind the man's back and to the man's face.

"I'm sure that the culprit didn't mean any harm," Dumbledore once again tried to placate the irate potion's master. "It is a relatively harmless prank."

Harry didn't know what was more amusing; watching the varying degrees of anger flash across Snape's face or the forced down amusement on the faces of the other professor's as the man continued to argue with the Headmaster on how the perpetrator would be punished. Even as the bell rang and student's filled out to head to their morning classes, the two continued to argue on the matter and potion's class was cancelled that day.

 _'No Snape for a week,'_  Gabriel cheered.  _'And no one will ever believe that we had anything to do with it now that Snape's immediately blamed us without evidence. Definitely worth the lack of sleep.'_

'Definitely,' Harry agreed, plans already forming for other pranks in his head, listening half-heartedly to Hermione's heated ranting on how it was wrong for Snape to immediately blame Harry, who didn't even do anything. He made a mental note to never corrected her of that notion.

 _'I wonder how long it'll take him to notice the other part of the prank?'_  Gabriel wondered.

The echoing scream of rage that followed quickly answered that question.


	17. Chapter 17

The prank had opened up many gateways for Harry and Gabriel and, in true prankster fashion, they had targeted many of the people that had made it their life mission to torment them from day one.

Needless to say, Draco Malfoy and quite a few Slytherin's showed up to Breakfast one morning glittering different shades of pinks and yellows, much to the delight of the student body but they weren't the only targets on Harry's list, new ones added one day when he found Luna Lovegood, the strange girl that could see their wings, walking down the hallway with a ripped bag and damaged textbooks.

Honestly, Harry wasn't sure what caused him to react so badly as he had only met the girl once, but Harry had quickly located the Ravenclaws responsible (in nauseated him when he discovered that one of them was a  _prefect_ ) and quickly destroyed what they loved most: their image. Coming to breakfast with clown hair and painted faces, their cloths decorated in neon signs that proclaimed them to bullies, Harry nearly choked on his breakfast when he saw the group break down sobbing in the middle of the Great Hall.

It was beginning to occur to him that he was going to far.

' _They deserved it!'_  Gabriel argued with him as they left the Great Hall that day. ' _What right do they have to call someone crazy just because of their belief system?'_

'We went to far,' Harry admonished as he remembered the calming draughts that had been forced down the group's throats. 'We never should have gone that far. Pranks are one thing but what we did wasn't anything better than what they were doing to Luna!'

Gabriel seemed to go silent and Harry couldn't tell if his memories were sulking or thinking it over. 'We'd be a psychiatrist's dream patient.'

Whether or not Gabriel agreed with him on if they'd gone to far (which they totally had) didn't seem to matter as laughter rang through their head. ' _You got that right,'_  Gabriel laughed.

After seeing the reactions that came from the Ravenclaw girls, Harry couldn't bring himself to do anymore big pranks. With Snape, he knew that the man deserved it and besides rage, it didn't actually hurt the professor (who Harry was beginning to doubt actually had feelings. Gabriel and he had a bet going on) and Malfoy deserved to have his insane ego brought down a few notches from its mountain high pedestal.

But if it wasn't one thing, it was another. Snape, no matter if there was evidence or not, had decided (rightly so, for once) that Harry was the root of all his problems over the last two weeks and was determined to make Harry's life a living hell, surpassing all of his actions in years previous. Harry couldn't go to class without leaving with a detention and he barely had time for homework, let alone to prank anyone.

It was because of this that the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, Oliver Wood, was fuming as Harry arrived three hours late to practice the third day in a row. "That's it!" Wood shouted, his face turning an impressive shade of red. "You've had detention every day this week and I can't remember the last time we practiced with our Seeker in attendance. What is Snape even giving you detention for?!"

"Today?" Harry asked dryly, rather fed up himself with what was going on, his wings fidgeting as he tried to stop his irritation from sending them sliding through the other members of the Quidditch team. "I was apparently breathing too loud."

Oliver paused mid-rant to just stare at him, astonished at the most blatantly stupid reason to give someone a detention in his school career. Fred and George also raised their eyebrows in surprise. The Twins had been given pointless detentions from the Potion's Master before and even they knew that this was so obvious mistreatment of a student that Snape should have known better. "You've got to be kidding," Katie Bell deadpanned after taking a minute for his answer to sink in.

Oliver didn't appear to be able to form words and settled for a wordless scream of rage instead. "We are going to Professor McGonagall," he managed to hiss after he forced himself to calm down. "I don't care if she has to get Headmaster Dumbledore involved, this is going to far. I bet that you haven't any time to do homework, let alone practice for the game!"

It was true. Harry was just glad that it was the second month of school, otherwise he might be failing all of his classes at this point. Runes, Transfiguration, and Potions had new essays nearly everyday and Harry was just glad that Charms was on Mondays or else he would be utterly screwed. It also helped that Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures rarely ever assigned out of class work and Harry had begun skipping more than just History of Magic to get all of his work done on time.

Yet he didn't really think that Professor McGonagall would really do anything to stop the problem. They had gone to her during their first year with their suspicions and she had just brushed them off. Sure she had listened last year after the confrontation with Malfoy and she had taken time out of her busy schedule to help Harry learn to better control his magic, only stopping when it became impossible to meet as the Heir of Slytherin began petrifying more and more people but this was a bit different. This was a complaint towards another teacher, one that had gotten away with harassing him for the past two years.

What was going to make this year any different?

The answer was homework. As soon as Wood had moved on from his lack of ability to show up for Quidditch to also not being able to get any homework done, McGonagall lost it. "Then how have you been getting your essays in, Mr. Potter," she asked, her eyes narrowed and seeming to gleam with a promised punishment if he even tried lying to her.

 _'Then don't,'_  Gabriel offered.  _'Sometimes, the truth is a lot harder to deal with than a lie.'_

"I've been skipping History of Magic," he finally said, making sure to shift his feet instead of his wings in discomfort. He doubted that she would believe him if he just stood there and stated it matter-of-factly. "I've also been skipping dinner."

And lunch but she didn't really need to know that he'd only eaten toast for the past few weeks. Not to mention the late nighters he'd been pulling just to keep up on his assigned reading. In fact, ignoring the essays, Harry had been forced to forego many activities the last few weeks as classes began giving out more and more work. He hadn't even seen Hope or any of the others since the beginning of the year! Harry's stomach gave another uncomfortable lurch, as it had be wont to do since he virtually stopped eating, and he ignored it in favor of studying the rage in his Head of House's eyes. She was fuming, something that he hadn't really seen her do before. Be angry, yes. More than once. Be stern and unrelenting? All the time! But fuming so badly that he couldn't even understand her when she began to talk and stormed out of the classroom? Nope. At least last year he sort of knew to follow her but this year, neither Oliver or Harry wanted to see just what their professor was going to do to he colleague.

"Should we just wait here?" Harry asked the stunned Quidditch Captain.

"I don't know," Oliver said, shaking his head with a frown. "I don't think I've ever seen her that angry. Snape seems to have overstepped a line."

"What line?" Harry snorted and gained a questioning look from the other. "That man has been harassing me from day one! I don't even know why he hates me so much!" He wasn't buying the 'your father saved his life' excuse that Dumbledore had given him at the end of his first year one bit. "He keeps comparing me to my father and I've never even met the man!" How could he be like someone that, until first year, he hadn't even known what they looked like?

Oliver gave him a sympathetic look. "The man's horrible," the seventh year agreed. "I never learned a thing from him during class and frankly, I doubt that anyone does. It amazes me that Dumbledore still keeps him around, glorified bully of a professor that he is."

"No kidding." Harry sighed and this time Oliver heard it when Harry's stomach growled in discontent.

"When was the last time you ate," the Quidditch Captain asked, suddenly back to being stern as he looked at Harry's expression. "I don't think I've seen you at lunch all week."

"I've been skipping," Harry shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant about it. "Had homework and I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of assigning me another detention for not getting his stupid essays done."

 _'Bastard,'_  Gabriel grumbled.  _'Can't believe he still works here. Wonder how he even got the job in the first place.'_

'No idea,' Harry answered as he and Oliver fell into a rather tense silence, the Quidditch Captain having practically ordered him to eat tomorrow, homework or no homework.

 _'Waiting sucks,'_  Gabriel sighed as time seemed to pass by.

'You bet it does.'

* * *

Minerva McGonagall was furious. No, she was beyond furious. When Harry and Wood had come to her last year, it had been different. The problem was amongst the students and she had easily taken care of that in attempt to make up for brushing of Harry's rather well-founded worries the year before.

Now Severus had crossed a line and she hoped that the man was ready to pay for it. She didn't doubt for a second that it had been more than just dinner he was skipping, his elective, Runes, being held twice a week and nearly always having an essay assigned each class. Bookwork was a given after every class that Hogwarts had and she knew that Filius, Severus, and herself, always had an essay due for the next lesson. If the boy had been skipping History of Magic, then he would have had to find time to get those essays in as well. She had no doubt that dinner wasn't the only meal he had been skipping.

There was a reason that detentions weren't given out daily and Severus had ignored that reason in favor of his blind hatred towards a dead man that Harry Potter had never even met.

She arrived at his office with time to spare, not even bothering knocking as she threw the door open and saw Severus' face twist in surprise. "Severus Snape," she growled and was more than pleased when he former student immediately stood to attention. It seemed that some things never went away completely, she thought in satisfaction. "Fourteen detentions in two weeks, Severus."

It did him no favors that his face immediately twisted into scorn. She cut him off before he even tried to speak. "Your dententions are right after dinner and until curfew, Severus," she snapped. "I know that for a fact as you have always operated that way. When did you think that he would have time for his classwork? Surely not just on the weekends! Not while taking Ancient Runes, getting his assigned reading done, and finished the essays assigned by other classes! I had wondered why the essays Mr. Potter had turned in were subpar to his usual work and now I know why!"

His face hadn't changed, the same scornful sneer in place as she ranted. That only further infuriated her and she had to stop herself from cursing her former student. "I thought better of you," she snapped and suddenly, he wasn't looking all that scornful as he had been. "It's been what, fifteen years? Sixteen? And you can't let go of the hatred of a man twelve years dead."

Snape finally snapped. "JAMES POTTER-!"

"IS DEAD!" Minerva roared back, causing him to step back in shock. "He died protecting his son! He died before he could even begin to live and you are here, alive, while he lies dead and buried! Harry Potter and James Potter aren't the same and never will be for the simple fact that Harry never had the chance to know the man!"

Something cracked in Severus and he stared at her, lost for words and his rage gone. Minerva didn't let that stop her, though. This anger and self-righteous behavior had gone on for long enough. "James Potter is dead. Sirius Black is the most wanted man in the Wizarding World and the Muggle World, not to mention quite possibly insane. Peter Pettigrew is dead. Remus Lupin? Well, this is the first job that Remus has been able to get in quite a long time. The Marauders all came to a horrible end and here you are, still holding onto your childhood rivalry and you know for a fact that you gave as good as you got. You have a job and career while most of them barely had a chance to live."

Severus was looking at her as if he'd never seen her before and she had a horrible feeling that she just wasn't getting through that thick head of his. "I had hoped you would realize on your own and change. I hoped that I wouldn't have to interfere and you would prove yourself to be a professional. But you have proven me wrong time and time again. Well no more!" She snapped at him, her voice raising. "Dumbledore has been lenient on you, Severus, and if he would reel you in, I'll go above him. You have deliberately put the welfare and education of a child at risk and you've done it more than once! This time, you will deal with the consequences of your actions."

Severus was becoming pale as she talked and seemed to have finally realized that the line he had crossed couldn't be fixed. She had tried for years, since he had first began working here, to see the good in him. To find the bright child that she remembered from her Hogwarts years. The rivalry with James Potter and his friends, to hear Severus tell it, was bullying but she remembered and knew for a fact that Severus was never the victim. The cutting curse he had invented, and yes, she knew about that, had been used on the Marauder's more than once. Yet he had never been punished for it just like the Marauder's hadn't been punished for their pranks.

It was time to stop waiting to see the good and time to start protecting her students because it seemed that no one else was going to. "Be prepared," she told him. "The Board will be notified by morning and you'll no doubt be investigated. Sharpen up and actually teach the students, not talk to them, and maybe you'll keep your job."

"Minerva," Severus began, obviously about to try and talk her out of it. Ever the Slytherin, she thought fondly but only frowned at him, turning to leave.

At the door, she stopped and look at him. He looked lost and angry at the same time and she had to wonder how it was that he had turned out this way.

"You know, Severus," she told him as she prepared to leave. "You've become exactly what you claimed to hate: a Bully."

She left a silent office behind her.


	18. Chapter 18

Harry never did find out what Professor McGonagall said to the man but suddenly his detentions stopped and he was able to reclaim his free time again; free time that was quickly claimed by Oliver in order to catch him up on what he had been missing for the last few weeks.

This also meant that he was free to make plans for the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year and Harry was beyond excited at being able to catch his first glimpse of the village that sat just within the protective borders that Gabriel had put around the Forbidden Forest during his time as a tree. It was because of this that Hogsmeade was the largest pure Wizarding populated town within the UK, or at least that was what Gabriel believed.

_'When I put up barriers,'_  the archangel said with an air of self-satisfaction. _'They stay the way that I made them.'_

He was stopped from joining the other students that were going down to the village by a sheepish and regretful looking Professor Lupin. "Hello, Harry." He greeted, sounding a bit less rugged than he had when he'd first met the professor on the train.

"Professor Lupin," Harry replied back, getting the feeling that this was more than just a teacher running into a student in the halls. The professor looked uncomfortable, more so than Harry had ever seen the man, before sighing and motioning for Harry to follow him. More curious than anything else, Harry decided to allow the man (whose magic still looked like an animal to him, and even more curiously, so did his soul).

_'Ooh,'_  Gabriel whispered in Harry's mind, going silent when Harry tried to demand an explanation. Frustrated with his other self, he turned his full attention to a hesitating Professor Lupin, motioning (politely) for the man to speak.

"Professor Dumbledore has asked me," he began before hesitating again. "He's asked me to inform you that due to the seriousness of Sirius Black's escape, it has been decided that, for your own safety, you remain in the castle during Hogsmeade weekends."

Harry felt his eyebrows shoot up. Really? They had to be kidding. "Then why," he asked with narrowed eyes. "Are the rest of the students allowed to go into town and not me?"

He knew the reason. It was fairly obvious since he'd overheard Mr. and Mrs. Weasley talking that night in the Leaky Cauldron but he wanted them to tell him. If the school thought that he would easily go along with such a ruling, one that seemed unfair if you didn't know all the facts, they were sorely mistaken. He'd enough of adults ruling his life and feeling justified in keeping information from him, things that could potentially be more than a bit important.

Lupin brought a hand up to rub his eyes, a pained expression crossing his face as he sighed. "This isn't a discussion that we should have here." The professor searched Harry's face, looking for something and nodding as he apparently found it. "If you would follow me to my office, then I will explain."

_'That was easy,'_  Gabriel commented in surprise. It was usually much harder getting information out of adults than Lupin was making it. In fact, the man seemed surprisingly willing to give him the information he was asking for, something that Harry didn't have any recent memories of happening with any other adult he'd encountered. It was refreshing, to say the least.

That didn't mean that he wasn't going to make this conversation harder than the man probably wanted it to be just because he was being so cooperative in telling Harry what he wanted to know. He could be nice and easily except the answers he was no doubt going to get...yet he found that if he did that, he was just opening himself up to have his life dictated for him and he didn't want that. Maybe he wouldn't have minded if he was still the same person he had been in first year, seeking the attention of others and revelling in it when it was given despite how it might affect him; nevertheless, that wasn't the case anymore and Harry had enjoyed the freedom he'd had over the summer more than he'd ever thought possible. He wasn't going to give that up to anyone.

Gabriel quite agreed with him, and even though his other half kept quiet, he knew what he would say. He knew that Gabriel, and whoever else they had once been, had the same appreciation for freedom and making their own decisions as he did and sometimes, he wondered what had happened in his first life to cause such a lasting thirst to make his own decisions. _'Two years ago and most of what you just contemplated would have went right over your head,'_  Gabriel told him, effectively cutting off Harry's thought process and drawing him back into the real world where he had, without realizing it, started to follow Professor Lupin to his office on what seemed to be autopilot, his wings folded tightly to his back to avoid hitting any of the wandering students.

Gabriel was right of course. Two year ago, Harry wouldn't have been able to even understand what being two people meant, much less accept that one of those different sides was an Archangel and the Messenger of God and whatever else Gabriel was that he hadn't told Harry about yet. There was no denial from the obviously listening memories so Harry felt confident in assuming that there was more to his other half than he was currently aware of.

He doubted that Archangel's usually took joy in tormenting human bullies, no matter what age they were. _'No,'_  Gabriel answered quietly.  _'They didn't.'_

Harry was prevented from inquiring further by their arrival to the Defense classroom and consequently, the office that was located inside. His attention was immediately by strange creature that was in the middle of the room, locked inside a water tank. "What is that?!" he half demanded half asked.

"That is a grindylow." The professor quickly told him. "I had it brought in for our next lesson."

Well, that was certainly going to be an interesting lesson if there ever was one, Harry grimaced as he looked at the indescribable creature that was currently slamming against its watery cage with all its strength. Harry couldn't even feel sorry for it as it screeched in anger.  _'That is definitely_ not _cute,'_  Gabriel proclaimed seriously. Harry completely agreed.

Havoc and Tinker picked that moment to stick their heads out of his pockets in an attempt to see what was causing all that racket. They both let out high pitched screams as they saw the offending grindylow, ducking back into his pockets as Lupin looked at them, startled. "Were those pixies?" he asked, seemingly stunned and amused.

"Cornish pixies," Harry felt the need to specify.

"Why are they in your pockets?" The professor asked as he seemed to try not to laugh. Harry's opinion of the man grew just a tad.

"That would be because they didn't really want to leave after Lockhart set a whole cage of them free." Harry explained easily. "They're cute."

The professor just shook his head, probably baffled by Harry's (and Gabriel's) logic on why he had let them stay in his pockets. The man was also no doubt wondering if any of the other professors were aware of Havoc and Tinker's presence, something that Harry wasn't really certain of considering none of them had ever said anything to the thirteen year old. "You said that you'd explain," Harry prompted after a few moments of silence.

"So I did," he sighed in response and Harry got the feeling that he probably wasn't going to like what he was about to hear. In fact, from the look on Lupin's face, he was certain that he was going to hate hearing everything that the man was about to say and he knew it. "You might want to have a seat."

Harry didn't sit, his wings fluttering back and forth in agitation, something that he doubted being in a chair would help. The professor didn't seem perturbed by this and began speaking. "The first thing you should know is that I knew you father. We were actually friends during our time at Hogwarts together. We were quite a rambunctious group of Gryffindors and the four of us," the professor gave a wistful smile. "Well, we were the best of friends."

"Four?" Harry prompted gently, even though he already had an idea of who one of the other two had been.

"Myself, James, Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black." Lupin confirmed sadly. "Peter was a timid fellow but he could easily be the most brave of us when necessary. That changed during the war and as time passed, it was a wonder that he could look at his shadow without fainting. Dark days, those times and I fear that it changed us in ways that were likely not for the better."

Harry didn't interrupted as the man collected himself before continuing. "We'd gotten news that the Dark Lord was targeting Lily and James. We never found out why and I suspect that they, themselves, weren't completely sure of the reason, but Lily was already pregnant at the time and they decided to go into hiding just to be safe, choosing to use the Fidelius Charm to protect themselves."

He had no idea what the meant and it must have showed on his face because Lupin chuckled. "The Fidelius is the most powerful secret charm in existence. It relies on the trust that the host family places in a friend and completely wipes out any information about a place from all the minds and records of it in existence. Your parents home in Godric's Hollow was protected by such charm and who better to be their secret keeper than Sirius Black. Voldemort should never have been able to find them."

And suddenly Harry understood why the man was so reluctant to tell him this. He understood why Draco Malfoy had been hinting towards him getting vengeance on Black since school began and he understood the pitying look on the faces of the professor's whenever the man was mentioned. "Black sold them out to Voldemort," he said and didn't even need the confirmation from Lupin.

There was a wrongness to that sentence that had Harry pausing, forcing back a frown as he tried to pinpoint where the feeling was coming from.  _'There's more to this,'_  Gabriel said with certainty. _'I don't know what it is or why Lupin doesn't seem to know but there is definitely more to this than what we're hearing now.'_

Harry agreed but he also didn't agree. Why should he care if there was more to the story when because of this one man, he'd spent a decade in a closet, bullie, and neglected by his so called family after a madman had tried to kill him and had succeeded in killing his parents, leaving him an orphan? The betrayal of someone who was supposed to be family, someone you trusted with the life of not only yourself and your family stabbing you in the back, stung badly in his chest for reasons that Harry couldn't, or wouldn't, acknowledge.

"I'm sorry," Lupin told him, correctly interpreting the rage and grief in Harry's eyes. "It's not an easy thing to accept, I know." And he did. Harry didn't need to look farther from Lupin's eyes to know that much. "Sirius Black was James Potter's best friend and he betrayed him that night twelve years ago. Only, Voldemort wasn't successful in killing you and in a strange turn of events, was destroyed himself. Peter, as timid and jumpy as the war had made him, tracked Sirius down to a muggle town, confronting him."

Lupin paused again and Harry watched as the man visually composed himself, his eyes watering a bit suspiciously. "Sirius killed Peter and the thirteen muggle bystanders that were in the area at the was nothing left of poor Peter but a finger and I'm sad to say that it was only then that the Aurors caught up with him and he was taken into custody."

Harry suddenly understood why no one had ever told him about this before. How did you tell someone that your parent's best friend went absolutely mad, betrayed them, and then massacred thirteen innocent people along with one of his friends? It also explained why Lupin himself had been reluctant to tell him what was going on and Harry nearly felt sorry for putting the man through retelling that story.

Almost. He had needed to know and it was about time that someone what honest with him about why a random stranger (although Sirius Black wasn't as much of a stranger that Harry had thought he was) was trying to kill him. It was certainly better than 'I don't know' and 'You survived due to the power of love'. _'I still can't believe that he tried to pull that one on us!'_  Gabriel snickered inside their head. It was ridiculous that Dumbledore had expected him just to buy that his mother was the only one in the Wizarding World that had died trying to save her child and that was why Harry had survived. Yeah right.

The rest of their meeting was interrupted by a strangely docile Snape. The Potion's Master didn't even look Harry's way when he entered the room and practically ignored Lupin, even though this was probably a great moment to throw in another derogatory comment towards the already emotionally strained man but, uncharacteristically, he kept silent and seemed to almost flinched when Lupin thanked him.  _'What I wouldn't give to know what McGonagall said to him,'_  Gabriel marveled as Snape left with two wide eyed wizards starring in his wake.

"That was..." Lupin started to say before remembering who he was talking to and cutting himself off abruptly. It seemed that he didn't want to give Harry a wrong impression of his Potions Professor or was reminding himself that it was unprofessional to talk about ones colleague to ones student, something that Snape hadn't given him the same courtesy of before.

"Weird." Harry finished. "Really weird. I wonder what Professor McGonagall said to him?" Lupin looked at him in surprise but took the opening as it was: an opportunity to continue to conversation now that Harry had gotten the information that he'd wanted, the potion that Snape had delivered giving off an ungodly smell from its place in the room. If Harry didn't know for a fact that nearly all potions smelled that bad, he would have thought that Snape was trying to poison the Defense Professor in the most unsubtle way ever invented.

Their conversation continued on from there and Harry felt himself enjoying talking to an adult for the first time since he'd met Hagrid (who was more of an overgrown kid than an adult) and before he knew it, it was nearly time for lunch and the Professor still needed to go over the fifth and seventh year essays (it was OWL and NEWT year for those age groups and Professor Lupin was working overtime to try and get them ready after years of having poor Defense Professor's).

So Harry said his goodbyes as the professor moved to catch up on the work he had missed, promising not to go down to the village until it was certain that Black wasn't going to jump out behind a building at him (even though he doubted that was likely, seeing as the few lives he had lived in the Wizarding World had clear memories of the village being quite populated) and went down to the Great Hall to have lunch.

Ron and Hermione weren't back yet, as was evident as he sat next to Neville in the nearly empty Great Hall, nibbling on a sandwich he had made out of the chicken and bread that was present on the table. "Hi Harry," Neville greeted him when he noticed the other boy, the round faced third year looking around for the other members of the Gryffindor Trio. "You didn't go to the village?" Neville asked, curious.

Harry shook his head. "Too much risk with Sirius Black on the loose." He explained easily, Gabriel grumbling at the unfairness of it all. "The Professors don't think the village is safe." And considering how many battles had taken place there during Grindelwald's war and then Voldemort's, Harry honestly couldn't blame them. Being so close to Hogwarts, it was like the village had a giant sign advertising 'Come attack me!' on it. Neville seemed to be thinking the same thing as he nodded.

"Gran didn't want me going for the same reason," Neville confided in him. "Said that if Black was still on the run last year, she'd think about letting me go but until then..."

Harry grimaced and nodded, looking around to see that only first and second year students were still in the Great Hall at all. "At least we'll have time to catch up on our Rune's homework." Neville grinned brightly at Harry's attempt to make light of the fact they seemed to be the only ones that were old enough not at the village.

"What did you think about problem six in the packet?" Neville asked, a strange light in his eyes that Harry hadn't seen anything but Herbology put there. It would figure that Neville had finally found something other than Herbology that he could get into.

The following few hours were spent discussing the pros and cons of each rune and how hard it was to remember each sequence that Babbling assigned them every three days. It seemed that the practice was at least improving Neville's memory, which was a plus considering how hard the other boy had, had it trying to remember the common room passwords and the different materials for each class.

Harry was actually disappointed when Neville told him that he had to go down to the greenhouse to talk to Professor Sprout about more advanced work. It seemed that the Hufflepuff head of house had noticed that the current class work as a bit beneath Neville's level and was taking steps to make sure that he was still getting something out of coming to class. Today was the first day since the beginning of the school year that Sprout had enough free time to come up with a lesson plan for him. "I think she wants to apprentice me," Neville to him as Harry walked with the boy down to the greenhouses, planning on visiting Hope and her foals. "Gran thinks I'd be better served to pay more attention in Defense but Professor Sprout keeps telling me that a good Herbologist is worth ten times as much as someone proficient in Defense."

_'Makes sense,'_  Gabriel acknowledged. _'Being good at defending yourself is a well and good but having an in depth knowledge of Herbology gives you the advantage of turning the whole battlefield into your weapon.'_

'That's true,' Harry nodded as he waved goodbye to Neville, making his way down to Hagrid's hut where he could already see Sol's golden freckled hide flickering through the trees. It always amazed him how the unicorn family always seemed to know when he was coming to visit. 'Casting spells is just that much harder when the ground you're standing on is the one attacking you.'

"'Ello 'Arry!" Hagrid called out, appearing from behind his hut. "Ah was 'ondering why this lot was ere!"

"Hello Hagrid!" Harry waved back, dodging the excited golden and white unicorn that shot from behind the hut, heading straight at him. He laughed as he mentally shook his head in surprise. He'd had so little time since returning to Hogwarts that he hadn't realized just how big Hope's foals had gotten. Sol was nearly as tall as his mother, his sisters already just as big as Hope was, though they were noticeably younger than their mother. "You lot have gotten so big!" Harry exclaimed as Sol reared in pleasure.

"'Aven't they?" Hagrid grinned, proud. "Ah've been tryin' ta get them ta come ta class tomorra. Ah bet everyone 'ould be pleased ta see a unicorn there!"

Harry brightened at the idea, never one to turn down any ideas that would let him see the family of four more than he currently did. "I bet it would be great experience," he told a skeptical Hope as she huffed in answer to Hagrid's request. "Celestica, Mystica, and Sol have only ever met Hagrid and me, human wise, and they do need to learn that no everyone has good intentions," he reminded her. The unicorn whinnied, obviously worried about an attack like she had suffered.

Harry laughed, "Don't worry. If old Voldemort shows up, I'll be sure to blast him for you." Not that the Dark Lord was likely to show up, considering her was currently a wraith that had no corporel body. He doubted that anything like the diary was here, either.

Hope gave another uncertain whiny, not at all pleased by the idea but seeing that practicality of it. Harry knew for a fact that he wasn't the first human that she had ever met (and neither was Voldemort) and this was probably one of the safer ways to introduce the nearly grown foals to humans other than Harry without risking them being hurt.

Hope took a few moments before grunting her agreement, Hagrid cheering happily in the background as he realized that he would be getting his demonstration after all. "I'll make sure that nothing happens to them," he promised her as she gave Hagrid what could only be described as a skeptical look. She huffed, making sure that he knew that she expected nothing less, as Hagrid began excitedly telling the three listening foals that they would get to come to class tomorrow after all. Sol seemed especially delighted by this fact, nearly toppling Harry over in his excitement.

Tomorrow was certainly going to be interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eurgh. Those of you reading SoC know what's going on already so I'm not getting into it again but let's just say posting is getting harder due to laptop problems (because internet problems weren't bad enough) and leave it at that...
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the new chapter!


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this chapter took longer than I wanted it too. All of you who have read the rewrite for Sightless Eyes called Behind Unseeing Eye know that my brother was admitted to the hospital. I found out later that night that it was Appendicitis and he had to have an emergency appendectomy.
> 
> Yet that was not the only thing happening. I was also diagnosed with herpangina (the horrible mutated baby of strep throat and mono, or at least that's what I'm calling it) which, unlike strep or mono, infects the mouth as well! So here I am, taking care of my brother and unable to talk without it hurting! What fun! =.= Not only that, however, but my insurance decided that it needed to malfunction as well so I had to spend a week without my medication for my migraines. Medication that I was just told needed the dosage increased but instead of increasing it, I went cold turkey for a week.
> 
> At least I know for sure it's helping now... I went back on it yesterday and I can actually stand looking at a laptop screen again! Yay for the incompetence of insurance companies!
> 
> So during all that clusterfuck, the internet on my laptop decided to let me fix it, so at least that's a thing now. The speaker's acting up, though, so it's still got problems that need fixing but I can actually load websites without waiting thirty minutes inbetween. It's not shutting down randomly anymore either but I still don't know what that was about. Meh, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
> 
> Half of this chapter has been done for quite some time. I don't feel any remorse for not finishing it sooner because I have been fucking busy and I want you to find the time to do anything other than cry during being sick, unable to talk, having a brother in the hospital with appendicitis, having an ill mother, migraines, and then school work.
> 
> Yeah that's right. I still had fucking school work during all that shit! Hell, because of that shit, I fell so far behind that I'm not graduating this year! It was already unlikely because of the migraines but now it's for certain. God, at least I'm taking online classes and I don't have to worry about actually attending any classes. That would have made the last month impossible.
> 
> Well, that's my rant for the day! Feel free to ignore my bitching and continue onto the chapter! (I wouldn't blame you.) Just know that any complaining about the amount of time between this chapter and the last update will kindly be ignored. You all have your reason.
> 
> Live with it.

Interesting wasn't the way to describe the disaster that was Care of Magical Creatures the next day. Harry could honestly say that it would have probably gone smoothly, with barely any kinks, if not for one important, annoying factor: Draco Malfoy.

In Harry's (and Gabriel's) defense, they really couldn't have predicted that the blond Slytherin would react that way nor could they have predicted how Sol and his sisters would react to most of the Slytherin's taking that class in general (which wasn't all that surprising considering only Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy were taking the class). Crabbe and Goyle were currently proving how stupid they actually were as they attempted to actually  _attack_  the playing unicorn.

All of this because Sol currently had Malfoy's bag in his mouth and had stolen Goyle's apple from him. Harry didn't know whether to marvel at how little it took to cause this chaos or go beat his head against the nearest tree. The unicorn foal didn't seem to understand the annoyance of his 'playmates' and was happily keeping out of their reach.

' _All this over a freaking apple,'_  Gabriel groaned silently. ' _Sol's a_ unicorn  _foal. Those asswipes are only proving that they're immature and unnecessarily violent to the entire class.'_

'The sad part is I don't think that they even care,' Harry sighed internally as Malfoy made a failed dive at the prancing Sol. 'I'll have Hope chat with him later.'

By 'chat' he meant scold beyond belief and let her youngest foal know just how much trouble he was really in. It was bad enough that Celestica and Mystica were hiding in the forest, refusing to even show themselves to the class of students. He really wouldn't have pegged them for the shy ones out of the three of them but it seemed that while Sol was perfectly content to prance around the students as he pleased, Celestica and Mystica were perfectly content to remain hidden from sight, most likely still by their mother. Harry doubted that Hope would allow her children to go anywhere without her, especially since they were going to be around a class of children (Harry and Hagrid being the only two...err, humanoids, there that she trusted).

Even though Sol was prancing around the clearing happily allowing certain members of the class to pet him, it was beyond obvious that he preferred Harry's company to that of anyone else's. Harry was sure that Hermione and Ron had at least realized that there was something more to it than Harry just being a pure soul (Gabriel snorted.  _'Pure soul my ass. I think it's more the whole 'angel' thing than anything else.'_ ) and he knew that they would be bombarding him with questions as soon as they were out of hearing range of anyone else. Seeing as they all had a free hour next hour, Harry knew that they were free to lag being as long as they wished to without having to come up with an excuse for why they were late.

Sure enough, as soon as Hagrid dismissed class and the students all began to hurry to their next classes (some having Arithmancy, other's having regular classes, and others wanting to go hang out in their dorms before their next class), Ron and Hermione were both still standing in the clearing, watching Sol cuddle up into Harry's side (having released Malfoy's backpack to the fuming blond when he had caught Harry's disapproving look).

"He sure seems to like you," Hermione let the unsaid question stand, looking at him with a clear question in her eyes. Harry sighed. This was his own fault for not telling them in first year or all of last year. They were bound to find out at some point.

"Do you remember Hagrid's detention?" he asked, and after receiving two incredulous nods since it had been two years ago since then, he began his story, leaving out Gabriel and his tree as he was sure that they weren't ready to hear that yet. Harry himself had barely been ready and he had been living with a voice in his head for a year.

"You've known them since birth?!" Ron asked, his eyes wide. As the redhead had grown up in the magical world, he was probably aware of the impact that kind of trust, given from a unicorn of all creatures, could have on the magical world if it was widely known. Harry had only found out what the possible ramifications could be when he had received some of his older memories of living in the magical world. It was one of the reasons he began consciously putting off telling them. It wasn't that he didn't trust them but he'd no idea how they would take it. Hagrid was one thing; he didn't seem to realize that it was rare for unicorns to bring their foals to meet you. Ron? Well, the redhead was reacting just like Harry thought he would: awe.

Hermione didn't seem to get it, bless her soul, and she just looked at Harry with consideration. "All those times you disappear...you're coming here, aren't you?"

_'Well, here and exploring the Forbidden Forest,'_ Gabriel said grumpily  _'Somehow I don't think she'd like the second part too much.'_  It seems, even though Harry trusted the two other thirteen year olds, Gabriel was far less trusting and didn't agree with telling them anything about their out of school activities, whether or not it was just telling them about his friendship with Hope and her children. 'You need to be more trusting,' Harry sighed as he nodded in answer to Hermione's question.

_'You need to be less trusting,'_  Gabriel gripped back but returned to silence. Harry would be interrogating his other self on the matter when they were alone. It was more than probable that there was a reason that Gabriel was less trusting than Harry and Harry wanted to know what it was. Sure, he'd find out eventually when he regained all his memories yet something told him that this was information that he would most likely want to know sooner rather than later.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Hermione asked, sounding hurt that he hadn't told them sooner.

Why hadn't he told them? Sure, his current reason was because he'd found out how most people would react to finding out that he was basically a part of a unicorn's herd but when he'd first met her, before all of that? Harry couldn't remember. It had just been...his. Not their thing, not all of their friend, like Hagrid was, but his. Hope was his friend. "I...don't know." Harry told her truthfully. "I just never thought to."

She frowned thoughtfully at him but let the matter drop, Ron giving him an unreadable look as they said their goodbyes to Hagrid and began the trek up to the castle for lunch.

Harry didn't know whether to be thankful that the class hadn't gone as he had expected it to (namely with Sol causing as much chaos as possible in the hour long class period and Celestica and Mystica openly rejecting people, something that most took really badly). In fact, once he had returned to the dorm room and realized how badly things could go, Harry had actually regretted helping Hagrid to convince Hope to allow her children to appear in the class. Instead, most had been allowed to pet the one unicorn foal that had appeared in front of them before they were treated to a rather amusing game of chase the unicorn after Malfoy had his bag stolen.

_'It could have been worse?'_  Gabriel offered as Harry remembered how much chaos just one unicorn had caused.

'I dislike you,' Harry informed his seriously, his eye twitching. Couldn't the archangel pick one emotion and stick with it? Five seconds ago he'd been sulking loudly and now he was back to being comforting? Ugh.

_'Self-hatred isn't healthy,'_  Gabriel informed him. Dammit, Harry could practically hear the smirk.

'Oh shut up.'

* * *

It seemed that Sol's appearance was the turning point for Hagrid's class, most of his students becoming more and more excited to see what he would show them all next. The upper years also heard of the unicorn demonstration and could been seen groaning in envy as they complete their own Care of Magical Creature's homework in preparation of taking their OWLs or NEWTs. Harry didn't know how Professor Grubbly-Plank taught their classes (Hagrid having only taken over the younger years classes while the other professor finished the upper year classes before she would retire next year) but Harry was sure it didn't have nearly as many demonstrations that Hagrid had and the other professor seemed to believe in written work, something Hagrid didn't.

Hermione and Ron were still upset with him but after a week or so, the two seemed to accept that Harry honestly had no idea why he (initially, at least) never told them. Hermione seemed to be of the opinion that he had just been unused to sharing such information at the time and even as they grew closer over the last year, he had been too stressed from the petrifications to say anything. The last part wasn't true but Harry didn't feel like telling her that it was because he was secretly an Archangel that had regained his Grace along with the memories of countless lives that he had lived. He didn't think that either of them would really understand that.

Hell, he was living it and he didn't really understand it.

It was Ron who was the least hurt of them both. "I don't tell you every single thing I do," the redhead had shrugged when he had asked. "You should have at least told us before class," he'd added, almost like an afterthought.

Harry couldn't argue that. Really, it was his own stupidity at work against him for not telling them both before they had come to Care of Magical Creatures that day. _'It didn't turn out too badly, considering,'_  Gabriel said in contemplation as he considered the redhead's advice.  _'For all we know, she could have started screaming as soon as she realized something was off.'_

Harry grimaced. Hermione didn't like yelling. She actually abhorred people who yelled to get their point across, as it was far too hot-headed in her opinion. So when she began yelling at you, you probably deserved it. _'No probably about it,'_  Gabriel cooed gleefully. It was his counterparts (alternate identity? Archangel self? Ugh, this was still hurting his head) opinion that watching the sometimes shy and rather 'goody-two-shoes' girl start in on someone was one of the better forms of entertainment that they had come across since entering the magical world again at eleven.

This didn't bode well for telling her his other huge secret, however. If she taken him hiding his relationship with Hope and her foals so hard, how would she take the fact that he was an archangel and had been hiding it from her for over a year? That wasn't a secret someone could just brush off and use his own childhood as an excuse for. Hell, with all the memories he was regaining, Harry doubted that he was even on the same level as them emotionally anymore.

How did you tell your best friends that within the span of a year, you'd become several different people and had more magical knowledge than school would ever teach?

_'That is not going to be a fun conversation,'_  Gabriel murmured. It had taken a long talk between the both of them before the archangel consciousness was more open to telling them both about himself. Really, all it took was Harry pointing out the amount of time that they spent together and the fact that eventually, like with Hagrid and the unicorn foals, they were going to find out. Likely in the worst possible way.

Gabriel had eventually conceded the point and now Harry was left trying to figure out how to tell them the truth.

How did one go about telling their best friends that they were an archangel? Or hell, how did you tell anyone that you were an archangel?

_'Carefully and delicately? Possibly as a burning bush to avoid being hit over the head with a chair?'_  Gabriel suggested oh so helpfully.

'A chair?' Harry wondered.

_'Mary was not the pushover people see to think she was,'_  Gabriel lamented.  _'Although I really didn't appreciate the demon comment. What part of 'Archangel' was so hard to understand?'_

'But a chair?' Harry felt the need to ask once more. Because really, who hit someone with a chair? Surely there had been a better weapon laying around somewhere?

'I don't know,' Gabriel said and Harry got the feeling that if he was just as bewildered now as he was then. 'It broke though. We spent a good hour just staring at it, too. That's when she starting throwing things.'

'I'm pretty sure that's not in the bible,' Harry remarked.

Gabriel snorted. 'Because that's something that I wanted everyone to know. Nah,

Harry had no response to that because frankly he wouldn't have wanted everyone to know that either if it was him...which it was. Damn, it was getting easier and harder to remember that Gabriel was him. Somehow, Harry didn't think that this was what most people meant by having an identity crisis. At least, he hoped it wasn't.

Gabriel, gratefully, didn't comment on the matter. Harry doubted that this was any easier for him, seeing as he was just memories given consciousness. What would it feel like to know that you would disappear completely in only a few years time? Harry didn't know if he wanted to find out and at the same time he wondered if he would.

When they became the same person again, who's personality would win? Would Harry close his eyes and become Gabriel completely again or would they combine?

Did he even want to know?

"Harry!" Hermione's voice jerked him out of his thoughts and he turned to the girl with a smile. The brunette wasn't smiling however.

"We need to talk," she told him seriously and Harry felt dread sink into the pit of his stomach. The look on her face did not foretell of good things.

* * *

Harry was right, Hermione had nothing good to say.

"What do you mean Ron hates you?" He asked stunned at the sobbing girl. He'd only been gone for an hour! Just what had he missed?!

"Scabbers went missing. Ron thinks that Crookshanks killed him but I know he couldn't have!" Hermione sobbed. Harry wondered how long she had been waiting for him to get back. Just when had Ron gone off on her?

"Why couldn't he have?" Harry asked, frowning as the words struck him as odd. Hermione gasped in a large breath before looking him in the face, searchingly. "He's a cat," Harry said, raising his hands in defense. "Scabbers was a rat!"

Crookshanks wasn't the only cat in Hogwarts, however, and Harry was well aware of that. He knew for a fact that Crookshanks had gone for Scabbers before as that was the whole reason that Hermione had met her cat in the first place. Why wasn't it possible that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers?

"Cat's bring back prey to their owners," Hermione said, her crying having stopped when it became obvious that Harry wasn't going to blame her. Why was it always Ron who was making her cry, Harry wondered absently. "And there wasn't any blood, Just fur. There would have been blood if Crookshanks had done it."

That made a fair amount of sense actually. Harry nodded. "Let's go talk some sense into Ron. It's likley Crookshanks just made a go for him and Scabbers ran off."

"Thanks, Harry." Hermione said and she hugged him before dragging him towards Gryffindor tower.

Harry couldn't help but feeling like a horrible person for keeping secrets from her the entire way there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we have officially diverged from the books! Little to no events should take place in the same way they did in canon from now on! Peter doing an early runner is just the beginning of how this year is going to go differently than canon.
> 
> Harry's struggling with keeping secrets from Ron and Hermione while Gabriel is coming to terms with learning how to trust them, even though he's not really Gabriel. Harry's having and identity crisis (well, more like he's acknowledging the identity crisis for what it is) and Hagrid is still oblivious. Oh Hagrid, I love how your three friends can have an argument right in front of you and you don't even notice.
> 
> Next chapter is going to be much more interesting. And longer. I wasn't really happy with the length of this one but it just didn't want to be written and after everything that was going on, I really didn't feel like rewriting it. The event work with the story plot and leaving it as is means I can move on to the next chapter before even more shit hits the fan.
> 
> In other news, I just watched Fan Fiction (I am soooo behind on Supernatural...) and ohadfkljas;dfjas;odfi CHUCK! Where have you been CHUCK! I WANT TO KNOWWWWWWWW! TELLLLLL MEEEEEEEEE!
> 
> ...Fangirl moment over now...
> 
> As always, any questions feel free to ask. I'm going to go finish season 10 of Supernatural...or at least all the episode that are currently out.
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	20. Chapter 20

Talking with Ron had easily brought the redhead around. Well, Harry had Hermione stay in the common room as he dragged a resisting Ron to their dorm where he sat the redhead down, explained how he found Hermione, reminded him how it felt when she'd been petrified the year before, and then calmly explained to Ron Hermione's theory.

Let it not be said that he didn't know how to speak to his friends and calm them down. Hermione had easily forgiven the redhead when he descended back into the common room to apologize sheepishly. She was well aware that Ron had an anger problem and the fact that he more often than not could keep in control was enough to keep her from blaming him for losing it after his beloved pet went missing.

They had begun searching the castle for the missing rat not long after and after two hours of fruitless searching, the three of them became resigned to the fact that the only way they were going to find the rat was if Scabbers came back on his own.

Ron spent the night morning his rat with Percy, who was still rather attached to the elderly rodent as well. Fred and George managed to keep from themselves from tormenting the two as well and they were left alone for the most part.

For the most part, everything seemed to become quiet. Snape barely said anything that was unnecessary during class and his ability to take points had been revoked. There always seemed to be another adult in the classroom with them, taking notes, and even the Slytherin's knew better than to act out. Well, most of them. The ones that tried were always punished with loss of points and a detention until they learned and frankly, potions class was finally ranked with History. No one liked it but they didn't loathed it either.

Professor Lupin seemed to disappear every month as well, though he was always promptly subbed for by a stern Professor McGonagall. Since the first absence had been by Professor Snape, the students figured that this was punishment for doing whatever it was that had the Hogwarts Board watching him.

Harry was surprised that his own involvement was being kept out of it. Everyone knew that secrets around Hogwarts didn't stay that way for long.

Which brought him to his other problem: his secret.

Children, Harry had found, were notoriously bad at keeping secrets. Ron had the tendency to blurt out whatever was on his mind when he was angry and Harry knew for a fact that Hermione was horrible at keeping anything from authority. Yet he also ran the risk of them going behind his back to find out what he was keeping from them (and they  _would_ , he knew that for a fact) so he wasn't sure what he was going to do.

Gabriel wasn't any help on the matter. The archangel had never been in this situation before and was just as lost and confused as Harry himself was. All the memories that Gabriel was screamed out against telling anyone anything about himself that could potentially be used against him.

What choice did he have but to trust them? He couldn't bring himself to push them away just to keep this from them and he knew that they wouldn't forgive him if he kept hiding it. He was lucky that they forgave him from keeping Hope and her foals from them for so long. Hell, he hadn't even told them before the class that they had met Sol and he knew that it was likely that he was going to be found out! That would have at least given them  _some_  warning!

So four months into the school year found Harry still unknowing as to what to do as he dragged his friends down to the edges of the Forbidden Forest with him.

"What's so important that we're coming all the way down here?" Ron complained, tugging his robes tighter around him to fight off the December cold. Harry, having been playing Quidditch in this weather since the end of September, was inured to the colder climate and ignored it in favor of just looking at them and trying to figure out where to start.

"This is about what you've been hiding, isn't it?" Hermione asked, looking at him knowingly. Harry gave her his best deer in the headlights expression as she smiled gently at him.

Ron looked to him expectantly. It was obvious that his friends had been discussing this when he wasn't around.

"It's hard to explain," Harry began softly. "And I'm not sure how to. Or if I should."

Ron looked distinctly hurt and Hermione was no better. "Harry, you can tell us anything!" Hermione told him.

"But could you keep it a secret?" Harry asked them seriously. "Ron's a horrible liar, and he's even worse at keeping secrets as he's prone to yelling them out in anger." Ron turned scarlet in embarrassment. "And you have trouble keeping things secret when you think that telling someone is for our own good. That didn't work out well with the Stone and it'll be even worse with this!"

Harry was getting more distressed by the moment and could only be grateful that Gabriel remained silent. Hermione was looking at him, still hurt but also contemplative. "You've been thinking a lot about this."

Harry nodded. "I want to tell you both, I really do, but I don't think I can. Not yet." Not until he knew that they would be able to keep it to themselves and wouldn't be a risk to him.

"Then we'll have to prove it to you!" Ron declared, seemingly having come to a conclusion on what to do. "We'll prove we can keep a secret and then you better tell us everything!"

Let it not be said that Ron Weasley wasn't determined. Harry and Hermione looked at him, Harry grinning slightly and Hermione nodding along.

It wasn't the best solution to it, not in the long run, but it would buy Harry some time to find a better one.

Until then, he would still have his friends.

* * *

The long quiet streak was interrupted by the attempted break in to Gryffindor Tower by one Sirius Black. Harry had nearly forgotten about his parents' traitorous friend and he didn't appreciate the reminder of the man either. Somehow, Black had gotten into the school and had known where Gryffindor Tower was. The man had gone straight to it and The Fat Lady still refused to come out of the portrait she'd taken refuge in during his assault.

The replacement portrait (Harry didn't bother learning his name) was not one that the Gryffindor's were fond of. The man was a knight of some kind and he was absolutely insane. Poor Neville was usually found locked out of the common room every night due to the man's habit of changing the password every other day. It was driving them all bonkers.

Between it all, Harry finally found time to practice with his sword again. Hogsmeade weekends left him alone in the castle and he used that time to practice maneuvering the sword as his memories told him to, building up the muscle memory that he was lacking currently.

With the sighting of Sirius Black came the increase of Dementors around the school. It didn't seem to be a problem, at first, until the entire hoard descended upon them during a Quidditch Game against Hufflepuff.

Unfortunately, Harry and Diggory were miles above the Quidditch towers chasing after the snitch when they appeared, surrounding both of the. Harry was immediately bombarded with hundred of memories, all of them fighting to be heard as Diggory fought to get out of the hoard, snitch forgotten.

That was when one of the Dementor's slammed into him and Harry knew that these creatures knew what he was. Could see what he was. They weren't after his soul (not that their Grace would let them have it even if they were) they were after their death.

Gabriel's alarmed shouting was drowned out by the memories assaulting him and Harry was struggling to keep ahold of his broom as he attempted to follow Diggory out of the hoard.

A Dementor that came from him above managed to knock him off the already out of control broom and Harry went free falling into the air, his wings desperately trying to keep him from falling. Unfortunately, Harry had yet to manage anything besides three inches off the ground in a tame setting and the pounding rain and gusting wind around them was keeping him regaining any altitude.

No one could see him falling as the Dementor's tried to follow him either, the weather and the cloud of black cloaks blocking him from sight. No one but Diggory that is.

The Hufflepuff seeker seemed to have noticed what the Dementors were doing and was diving after him, his hand outstretched. Harry quickly changed his tactics from trying to stay in the air to trying to slow his descent enough that the prefect could catch him, hand outstretched.

The other seeker managed it about ten feet before the start of one of the Quidditch Towers and just in time for a glowing phoenix made out of light to attack the Dementor hoard, driving the dark beings away from them.

Diggory quickly headed for the ground, Harry's added weight threatening to buckle the broom that was just as battered looking as Diggory was. Even through the rain, Harry could see the professor's running at them from the stands.

Harry, his head throbbing from the memories that still attacked him from all sides, his wings aching from the stress his freefall had put on them, and his entire body sore from the slamming the Dementor's had been doing, let himself fall unconscious as they finally reached the ground.

* * *

Harry woke to the voices of people surrounding his bed, arguing about something or another. He groaned at the sounds, his head still throbbing slightly from the abuse it had been put through.

_'Next time we see one of those things, we stab it. Witnesses or not!'_  Gabriel's voice echoed quietly in their head. Harry frowned at the softness of the voice trying to come up with an explanation for why it was so faded.

Eight sets of new memories hit him as soon as he tired, causing him to cry out at the pain it caused.

Voices from above him sounded panicked but Harry couldn't focus enough on them to answer as he was dragged into the memories.

_ There was nothing around him. Just light and darkness that spread out in a wonderful and empty void. The light formed three tall beings, hovering over him as he floated effortlessly in the nothingness of Time. _

_ "Who might you be, young one?" One of the beings asked in a language he knew but had not learned. _

_ He thought for a moment before the answer came to him. _

_ "I am Gabriel." _

_ The beings seemed to be pleased with his answer. _

_ "Welcome," the one farthest from him said. "Brother Gabriel." _

Harry felt his body spasm as the memory settled him, his head threatening to burst from it.

_ Heaven was no longer the void it had been. Where there was once nothing but Dark and Time and Light, there was now structure. Endless swirls of fields and plants and a sky that seemed to go on for ever, glowing a soft red and orange that made him want to keeping flying until he found the colors source. _

_ He had wings, six hundred pairs though only six ever showed at a time. He was Gabriel, archangel, the fourth of them to be born. His brothers were Samael, Michael, and Raphael but Samael was his favorite. Raphael was far too kind to do anything fun and Michael was always stern. Samael was always willing to go exploring with him, looking at everything that their Parent had created. _

_ So many wonderous things but the Sky was his favorite. _

_ Flying made him feel so  free! _

More and more memories filled him, drew him in, and Harry could only cry out in pain, begging for relief.

Was he Harry Potter, thirteen year old wizard?

Ivan, who had died before he could start to live?

Nathan who was surround by fire and smoke, and wanted his mother?

Or the Archangel Gabriel, youngest of the Pillars of Heaven?

He didn't know. He wanted to know. He wanted it to stop, wanted to be able to think.

Something warm surround his skin, liquid forced down his throat and mercifully...silence.

**Darkness.**

* * *

Cedric Diggory had learned a lot of things during his six years at Hogwarts. The first was that nothing stayed secret in Hogwarts. The second was that being a Hufflepuff meant he was underestimated. The third was that Defense Professor's never stayed more than one year. The fourth was that Gryffindor or Slytherin were the only houses that would ever win the House or Quidditch cup.

The fifth was that Harry Potter would always be the enigma of the school. Danger seemed to follow him around like a lost puppy and mysteries seem to follow in his wake. From his first year here Potter seemed to have tipped the balances of the school and seemed to be on the receiving end of the good and bad side of the rumor mill.

Cedric had reserved judgement for the tiny Gryffindor, having never really talked with the other before and therefore didn't really know him that well. Potter seemed decent enough a person in the long run though, so Cedric usually took the rumors with a grain of salt. What first year would battle a mountain troll? What second year could defeat Slytherin's monster? It was insane. Impossible.

Then he had seem forty Dementors physically attacking the Gryffindor miles above ground. That wasn't normal Dementor behavior. Dementors wanted to eat your soul, feed on your suffering, not kill you!

Except they seemed to really, really want Potter dead. Coming at him from all sides, slamming into him from above and below, knocking him every which way in the air, Cedric was amazed that it had taken as long as it had for Potter to be knocked off of the out of control broom and free fall to the ground mile below them.

It had been more on instinct than anything else when he had dived through the dozens of Dementors after the falling Gryffindor, hand outstretched in attempt to grab onto his robes and stop his fall.

Yet Potter wasn't falling like Cedric knew he should be. If anything, he was slowing down, almost staying in the air with no broom beneath him, arm and hand reaching towards his own until they managed to meet and Cedric was able to keep them from spinning out of control as the Dementors resumed their attack, only on him as well. Cedric, blinking away the memory of the icy waters of a lake surrounding him in effort to keep them both from dying.

The Patronis of Dumbledore's had been a relief, driving the Dementors away and allowing Cedric to attempt to land, Potter becoming more and more limp in his grip the longer it took.

He nearly had a panic attack when the third year passed out once they reached the pitch grass, becoming limp in his arms as Professor's swarmed the both. Cedric himself was exhausted, his body aching and his arms tingling unpleasantly from the jerking that grabbing Potter mid-air had brought. The Gryffindor Quidditch team was landing all around them, the Weasley Twins helping him up as Hagrid, bless the man, took Potter and began heading for the castle. Fred (or George?) grabbed his right arm and the other twin the left and hefted him up until he was standing before helping him follow the Care of Magical Creatures Professor to Hogwarts where Madame Pomfrey would fuss over them both.

When they got to the hospital wing, Potter was still unconscious and was being fed a mirad of potions before Snape of all people began checking him over. It made sense, considering that Potter was worse off, and it turned out that Cedric had only suffered some bruises and a torn arm muscle and the normal effects of a Dementor. One potion and some chocolate fixed him up rather quickly.

That was when the Minister of Magic himself appeared with Headmaster Dumbledore. The Minister looked at them both and paled while Dumbledore actually began yelling at the man. Cedric watched in glee as the aged Headmaster tore into the Minister with a rage Cedric hadn't known that he was capable of.

This wasn't the eccentric old man that twinkled at them from the Head Table but the defeater of Grindelwald and the only man You-Know-Who ever feared. This was a pissed off warrior and Cedric knew that it was unlikely he'd ever see this side of the grandfatherly old man again.

Even Lucius Malfoy, who appeared out of nowhere from what Cedric could tell, stayed clear of the raging old man. Cedric could even see an amazed gleam enter the blond man's eyes.

Then Fudge actually tried to argue with Headmaster. Cedric didn't know whether to mourn the man's stupidity or applaud his bravery and he would never find out as Potter groaned from his bed, catching the attention from everyone in the room.

Madame Pomfrey tried to get his attention, hovering over him. Fudge seemed to be trying to talk to the boy as well, something about everything being alright?

Then Potter screamed, a horrible wail that would haunt him forever, back arching from the bed before he began convulsing.

Cedric didn't know who was more horrified out of them all, but the room flew into a panic as they tried to figure out what was wrong with the Gryffindor and stabilize him. Cedric himself was forgotten in the flurry of robes and movement that followed. He could only grip the hands of each Weasley Twin as they watched the black haired boy thrash and scream.

Then it grew silent, Potter fell still, and everyone around him panicked.

"He's not breathing!" Pomfrey cried.

The panic that followed was worse than before and Cedric moved faster than they could stop him, running to Potter's still form before beginning CPR.

His mother had always found muggle medicine fascinating and had taught both magical and muggle first aid over the summer. Magic wasn't working here and Cedric ignored the people around him as he performed the methods his mother had taught him.

Potter gasped a breath against his mouth and Cedric allowed himself to be pulled away with a sob of relief. Pomfrey went about stabilizing him while two redhead practically clung to him, crying. Cedric wondered, then, how long it had been since the Weasley Twins had adopted their little brother's friend as their surrogate sibling but allowed them to cling to him in thanks.

A stunned Snape ordered the Twins out as Pomfrey announced him to be stable and Cedric was given one more potion and pushed down onto the bed.

Sleep claimed him moments later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ER...well, at least you all know for sure if Dementors can tell if he's an angel or not? ...Don't kill me?
> 
> On another note, this chapter was much more interesting than the last one! Really, I don't know why that chapter didn't want to be written. This one took, like, only a few hours before it was finished!
> 
> So Cedric has made an appearance! Sirius has finally broken into the castle and Gabriel wants to murder all Dementors (though I doubt any of you blame him for that). Harry also still hasn't told Ron and Hermione what he is but he has at least talked to them. They already knew that something was up and he has at least gotten them to agree to wait on learning his secret.
> 
> This chapter though...so many different emotions! Harry nearly died, Dumbledore is beyond pissed, Cedric is a bit numb and manages to save Harry's life, and the Twins will probably never let Harry out of their sight again. Ever. And Ron and Hermione might cling to him for a bit.
> 
> So was it worth the short chapter before this? XD
> 
> As always, feel free to ask any and all questions you have!
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is officially the longest fanfic I've ever written. We are 21 chapters in people! Holy crap, I've written 21 chapters of this thing in four months. FOUR MONTHS! It took like, three years to get to 12 chapters in Sightless Eyes! O.o
> 
> I don't know what it is about this story but it really, really wants to be written! XD
> 
> Onto the angsty goodness that is this chapter!

Harry moaned as the lights of the Hospital Wing seemed to burn his eyes when he opened them, squeezing them shut as they threatened to restart the migraine that he barely remembered having. Gabriel was worryingly silent in his mind.

In his mind? Harry wondered, blinking. That wasn't right.  _He_ was Gabriel, wasn't he? The Messenger of God with three older siblings.

That wasn't right either. He wasn't Gabriel, Harry remembered. Not completely, not yet. He was still currently Harry but he  _remembered_  being Gabriel. He remembered Heaven before the birth of the seraphs and the principalities and the cupids and the cherubim. 'We reached the end of your human lives, didn't we?' Harry asked his memories, searching out the voice that was somewhat muted in the back of his mind.

' _We did,'_ the memories of Gabriel said, sounding more like he had in the beginning when they had first met. ' _The Dementors reacted strongly to us and our proximity to them brought the worst of our memories in our human lives forward until they were all bombarding us at once. Add to that the fact that they were attempting to kill us and we ended up free falling miles from the ground while we tried to use our wings to save us, our Grace and soul reacted by working together to keep us alive. Our soul weaved itself into our Grace, powering it so that our wings grew until they were long distance flight ready and our Grace kept most of the memories at bay so that we could focus on motor control. Unfortunately, once we were safe on the ground the forced melding they did nearly killed us.'_

'So in saving our life, we nearly died?' Harry asked incredulously.

' _Worse,'_  Gabriel said, his voice still softer than he was used to but easier to hear than it was when he'd first woken up. It seemed to be stronger the more he explained. ' _Our heart stopped. Because our soul and magical core are so closely combined, when our soul and Grace began trying to reject each other, our magic started trying to counteract the adverse effects it was having on our body in effort to keep us alive. The potions and spells they were trying to use to stabilize use was interfering with our own magic and it nearly killed us and stopped our heart. Luckily, Diggory knew CPR and got our heart beating again and our magic got with the program and starting using the potions and Pomfrey's spells to help it stabilize us instead of trying to fight them as well.'_

Harry knew that what he was hearing should have been horrifying but he could process it. 'Is that why I was seeing those memories?'

' _Yes,'_  Gabriel told him. ' _Our Grace stopped holding them back and you got sucked into them while everything else was busy. Honestly, it was probably for the best.'_

That he could agree with. It didn't sound like it would have been pleasant to remember any of that and he was rather happy that regaining all those memories had prevented it from becoming a problem. It sounded like he had been in a lot of pain, honestly.

Some crashed to the floor across the room. Harry forced himself to sit up and came face to face with an ecstatic Madame Pomfrey. "Mr. Potter," She breathed as she pushed him back down onto the bed. "How long have you been awake?"

"A few minutes," he croaked, his voice dry and raspy from disuse. "What happened?" he asked because he knew that was what was expected from him.

"Do you remember the Dementors?" she asked hesitantly. Harry pretended to pause before nodding slightly. "Good, you don't seem to have any memory loss then. Mr. Diggory managed to land you both safely and Hagrid brought you up to the infirmary while Mr. and Mr. Weasley helped Mr. Diggory here. You had an adverse reaction to the presence of the Dementors and you went into shock and began seizing. Mr. Diggory performed CPR when magic proved not to be working and we managed to stabilize you."

She was leaving a lot out but Harry didn't blame her. Telling a thirteen year old he'd been dead wasn't something you did right away. He obediently opened his mouth as she poured a potion down his throat. Swallowing, he felt the ache in his limbs that had been there since he'd woken up fade. "How long was I out?" he rasped.

"Two weeks," she told him bluntly. "I was beginning to consider sending you to St Mungos."

"T-two weeks?!" Harry stuttered, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. He'd been out for two entire weeks? He knew, intellectually, that it would've taken time for Grace to stabilize and the memories to assimilate into his mind but two weeks? Fuck, he'd missed two weeks of classes! He knew exactly what two weeks of backed up homework looked like and he was  _not_  looking forward to having to make it up.

Madame Pomfrey gave him a gentle smile. "Best not worry about school just yet," she advised knowingly. "You still have a little while to go before you'll be allowed back to the dorm with the others just yet, Mr. Potter."

Harry groaned, knowing that she would make sure that he was here for at least another three days. He'd been in the infirmary enough to know that Madame Pomfrey was the master of the Hospital Wing; the only way he would be getting out of here early was if she had decided that he was fit enough to return to school.

Another potion appeared in front of his face. Harry tipped his head back with a sigh and tried not to choke at the awful taste that accompanied it.

This was going to be a long few days.

* * *

**One Week Earlier**

* * *

Albus Dumbledore didn't know where things had gone so wrong.

The school year had started out with an aura of despair, his students having been subjected to the presence of Dementors on their way to the castle. Albus was already upset that the Dementors were going to be on school ground but to have his train searched when there were already teachers on board to protect the students should the need be? The Minister was threatening his patience in this matter.

Yet there had been no major incidents with the horrible creatures afterwards. The ghosts kept themselves hidden from the soul-sucking monsters and life continued as it always had, though Peeves kept himself just as scarce as the other Hogwarts ghosts. The first years would be in for a rather rude surprise the next year when the poltergeist was free to make himself known again.

Albus chuckled but sobered quickly as he remembered the events that lead up to his current trip.

Never in his life had he seen Dementors act in such a way. The creatures were usually only ever interested in the soul of their victims but with Harry, and then Cedric after he caught the falling Gryffindor, the Dementors had been actually  _attacking_ them! For some reason, the foul monsters wanted young Harry dead and they were perfectly happy to lose a potential victim to see to it that it happened. Frankly, Albus wasn't sure what to make of it.

Harry's reaction to the Dementor's after effects was even more concerning than the Dementor's wish to see Harry dead. The boy had literally begun seizing, his entire body failing. Albus didn't know if it was because of his mother's protection or if it was caused by young Harry himself but he didn't know that Harry had almost died. The boy had been dead and would have stayed that way if Mr. Diggory hadn't acted when he did.

Muggles had such useful inventions, he thought fondly as he remembered young Cedric telling him all he knew about CPR. Madame Pomfrey, he knew, would be seeking out those muggle lessons that the young Hufflepuff had talked about. This would likely not be the last time they ran across a patient that had adverse affects to magical means of stabilizing. It was pure luck that Mr. Potter had never had need for such techniques in the past otherwise his visit would a much more sour one than it was already going to be.

He needed to inform Harry's family of their nephew's current state. It had already been nearly a week and Mr. Potter didn't show any signs of awakening anytime soon. It was likely the boy had entered into a healing coma from the shock his system had endured.

The only good thing that was coming out of this was the fact that Cornelius had agreed to remove the Dementors. The monsters weren't doing anything to keep Sirius out and they had nearly killed two of his students. Albus had no doubt that even if Cornelius had wanted to, he wouldn't have been allowed to keep the Dementors in place. Albus was more than prepared to bring the matter up to the Board of Directors as well as the Wizengamot. One way or another those creatures were going to be gone from his school.

Number Four Privet Drive was just as he remembered it had been, little having changed over the past twelve years. It was quite amusing to see the myriad of neighbors peeking out at him from behind their curtains.

But he digresses. He wasn't here on happy terms and he wouldn't allow himself to forget the reason for his visit.

Walking up to the fourth house, clearly labeled 4 quite boldly, Albus braced himself for the coming conversation. There was no doubt in his mind that the Dursley's would be distraught when they learned what had happened to their nephew. Knocking on the door, it didn't take long before he was faced with a grown Petunia Evans, her eyes narrowed in a way that he had never seen before.

The woman balked at the sight of him, nearly slamming the door into his face. Well.

"Mrs. Dursley," he began kindly. "I need to talk to you about your nephew, Harry?"

Petunia paused in her attempt to close the door in his face, studying him closely before recognition set in. He was older than when he had last seen her and in the muggle clothing that Severus had helped him pick out he no doubt looked even more different than he had when appearing to her as a child. "Come in," she all but snapped at him.

Really. She was such a polite child too, he lamented as he followed the girl that had loved her sister so much she had tried to follow her to school just so they could stay together. He couldn't figure out what had changed that bright, loving girl into the bitter and stern woman he saw before him. Somehow he got the feeling he wasn't going to like what he learned here and his feeling rarely ever let him down.

Yet she was Harry's aunt and Albus doubted that family would ever be able to hurt each other in such a way. He might not get along with his own brother, Aberforth, yet he knew that his brother loved him just as he loved his brother. They were all each other had left after their sister had died.

"What do you want?" The voice did not come from the skinny woman in front of him and Albus turned to look at a rather large muggle man that he assumed to be Vernon Dursley. "What has the boy done?"

"Done?" Albus asked in bewilderment. "I'm afraid you're mistake, Mr. Dursley. It is not Harry's doing that I am here but the mistakes made by the Ministry. I'm afraid that due to the break out of Sirius Black, the Minister of Magic decided to use the prison guards to protect the school."

That was an interesting shade of purple the man was turing. Truly, Albus had never seen such a shade on the face of a human before. He wondered if the plump man knew that he was doing it?

"What does that have to do with us?" The shrill voice of Petunia Dursley asked, her eyes glinting in a way that spoke of only anger. Albus felt the bad feeling in his chest grow.

Surely he was wrong? Surely Minerva had not been right, all those year ago when they stood on the porch of this very home. Family was everything, in the Wizarding World. The muggles couldn't be so different in that regard.

Could they?

"I'm afraid that the guard went rogue and attacked your nephew and another student," he told them gravely. "Mr. Potter is currently in a coma in our Hospital Wing. As his closest family, it is my duty to let you know."

"So the boy got himself hurt did he?" the muggle man sneered in a way the reminded Albus of many of the pureblood children in his school. "It isn't our problem! The freak probably got what he deserved."

Freak?! Albus felt anger boil in his stomach and his magic flared against his skin. He turned to Petunia, looking for the girl he remembered in the older, more bitter face. The sister of Lily Evans, just as sweet as Lily herself was.

He could find nothing other than cold disdain, not even a shred of worry or love for her injured nephew.

How could he have misjudged them so badly? How had that sweet girl turned into this hardened, cruel woman? It was Sirius Black and Severus Snape all over again only this time he had blinded himself to the truth and had condemned a child to an unloving childhood.

He felt old, terribly old in that moment but steel himself and focused, looking into the mind of a girl he had once known.

Abuse. He saw abuse in her mind, a child no younger than five cooking at a stove that was taller than he was, burning himself as she attempted to guide him, a stifled fondness. He saw a woman being him, one three month pregnant with child and a beefy man standing over her. He saw what she saw as the child became and scapegoat, used to redirect the anger of her husband onto a new target.

He pulled out, whirling around to perform the same on the man, the object of his current anger.

He was only in there a few seconds at most before he pulled out in disgust, forcing his anger down lest he do something he regret. This...this thing was not worth his anger or wrath. He was not worth the lengthy list of spell that Albus itched to cast. He was not worth the effort it would bring to take him down a peg.

"Acio Harry Potter belongings," Albus rasped with a flick of his wand. There was a rustle of movement in the cupboard not far from them and he closed his eyes in grief as only a handful of objects floated out to him.

A blanket that he remembered being wrapped around an orphaned baby, a school bag that was tattered and filled with old school assignments, pens and pencils, a handful of broken toy soldiers and a teddy bear that had seen better days. This was what he had let young Harry grow up with? This is what he condemned a newly orphaned boy too, despite the warnings of his own colleague?

It said much about Harry as a person that he had turned out as he did. Albus had known that Harry wasn't treated as well as Dudley Dursley but never had he suspected neglect on this level or abuse like he had found.

Harry would not be returning here. Albus didn't know with whom Harry would live and he didn't know how taking him from this home would affect the protection that Lily had left her son. He didn't know to tell Minerva of what he had found. He hadn't the slightest idea how he would ever make this up to Harry himself.

He just knew that he didn't care at the moment, knew that leaving Harry here may cause a fate worse than death, knew that he couldn't watch as another child turned into Arianna before his eyes.

Not again. Never again.

"Harry will not be returning here." Albus told them gravely. "I believed, twelve years ago when I left him in your care, that you were kind people. That you would raise him right. I ignored warnings as to the nature of your family in my belief that family couldn't possibly raise a hand against another. I find myself corrected."

He looked at Petunia Dursley, for there was no sign of the Petunia Evans he'd known in her face. "Lily would be ashamed of you, for how you treated her son."

Ignoring the flash of emotion across the Dursley woman's face, he turned with the object in his hand and walked out of the door. The wards around the house broke as he left, having cut the anchor that he had tied them to in light of his discoveries.

He may never be able to make up for his mistakes in regard to Harry Potter but he would try.

It was all he could do.

* * *

Albus was grim when he returned to the school, Minerva noted. He was carrying the most battered and tattered objects she'd ever seen with him, his magic filling the air as he approached.

She had never seen Albus like this before. She had never seen the twinkle from his eye gone and the expression of a man so tired in his features before. She had seen him furious, enraged to the point of violence, and protective. She'd seen him joyful and with a spring in his step and she had seen him grieving many times for those they'd lost in the war year before.

Now she could only see an old man, weary and tired of life and that in itself frightened her on a level she had never been before. For what could put that look on the face of Albus Dumbledore, who had seen two Wizarding Wars and watched the rise of two Dark Lords during his hundred years of life?

She had wondered what had called her up to Albus' office before he even returned and now she had her answer.

"Albus?" she didn't need to ask anymore, knowing that he would know what she wanted, what she was asking. It was a companionship that had been year in the making and had been perfected over decades of knowing each other.

"Oh Minerva," the man said, setting down his load on his desk as he slumped into his chair. "How could I have been so wrong?"

"You are not all knowing, Albus," she told him, still uncertain as to what had happened to leave him in such a state. You cannot know everything. Whatever it was, I'm sure-"

"You were right about the Dursley family." He told her, cutting her sentence off and making her pause as the implications attempted to set in. "Other than what Mr. Potter has already brought with him, these were the only items that belonged to him in that entire house."

These were Harry's? Looking at them, she did see the blanket that they had left him in among the pile of objects, thread thin and tattered looking that it was. "Did they fall into poverty?" she wondered for she remembered a rather beautiful house that spoke of wealth and objects of largely good quality for their child to play with spread around a round baby boy. It certainly would explain why the clothing that Mr. Potter appeared to wear was sometimes far too big for him and rather worn.

"No," he told her, eyes grim and sad. "They did not."

The worst kind of muggles, she remembered grimly. Hogwarts was not known for letting students stay in bad situations, the case of Tom Riddle having motivated the Board to take part in removing children from unstable and unhealthy homes.

But this was Harry Potter, the third year student that got into more trouble during the time he'd been here than his father and friends had ever managed in their seven years. The boy that was kind and had a moral code that put even her own to shame. She even recalled quite well that Hagrid had been boasting about the resident unicorn herd's fondness of young Harry during a staff meeting only a weeks ago. She looked at Albus, her face just as grim.

"The Board must know," she told him, ignoring the emotions that swelled within her stomach at the thought of telling a Board that was made of mostly dark families that the Boy-Who-Lived was being abused by his muggle relatives. If this got out, if people found out, it would send muggle rights back nearly eighty years.

All because a family of less that human muggles had thought to mistreat their orphaned nephew.

"No they don't." Albus shook his head. "I have been Mr. Potter's magical guardian since he was first orphaned, as stipulated by Lily and James' will if his godparents were not options. This matter is mine to deal with."

"Who will he live with, Albus?" She demanded. "You don't own a house and students leave for the summer for a reason. The wards cannot be tuned if he is still in the castle."

"I'm sure I know of at least two families who would be glad to take him for the summer," he told her, the twinkle entering his eyes as she huffed. There was nothing they could do about the past for now but they could make sure that the future was much brighter. "Why I do believe Molly would hex me if I even tried considering anyone else first."

They had made a mistake, Minerva acknowledged in her mind. She was just as guilty for leaving Harry with those people as Albus was and she knew it. They would make up for that mistake to Harry for years to come but for now all they could do was give him the home with the family he deserved.

It was not the best possible ending. It was not the perfect solution to a problem that had been over a decade in the making.

The past could not be changed but the future...

Well, that was a different story, wasn't it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...This chapter got grim. And I thought the last chapter was bad but...yikes. I guess you can all tell what my current mindset is, can't you?
> 
> So the repercussions of Harry's coma! Dumbledore visits the Dursley's and gets reality slapped in the hardest way. Honestly, writing Dumbledore is hard. His thoughts just go everywhere. He really wanted to curse the Dursley's at the end there but well, that wouldn't solve anything except bring even more attention to the problem than they want. Honestly, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with Dumbledore in this story. Was he going to be the manipulative old man that made more mistakes that humanly possible? Was he going to be the mentor, the grandfather figure that the books tried to portray him as? Was he going to be senile and deluded?
> 
> I went with a mix of manipulative and human, in the end. I think that works best for this story. He makes mistakes and he knows that but in Harry's case he also has to make sure that his mistake didn't ruin a political move that had been decades in the making. He's manipulative, he fought in two wars against his former lover than his former student, and he's seen his own sister hurt by muggles worse than Tom Riddle ever was and still came out with a mostly solid moral code. Basically, he's human and old. And I can work with that better than some of the more extreme versions of his fanon out there (not that I don't appreciate those versions of Dumbledore if they're done right, they just won't work in this story).
> 
> Harry also wakes up to find his identity crisis has become just that much worse than it already was. His Grace and Soul reacted to the threat of Dementors in order to save him only to end up nearly killing him instead. The biggest effects of this new problem will be revealed in the next chapter when it becomes known that Harry's woken up, however I wanted to get some perspective of his weeks unconscious started in this chapter. There'll be more glimpse into the two weeks he was in a coma in later chapters as well.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed the Dementors reaction to Harry. I've been trying to figure out how I wanted them to act since I began third year and then this plunny jumped in my head and I was just like OMG YES! Because what better way to get Harry to learn how to drive them off without getting close than this clusterfuck?
> 
> And I like messing with my characters. I'm just that much of a horrible person. And I wanted Cedric to save Harry's life because I love Cedric and it made me cry when he died in the fourth book/movie. Cedric I love you!
> 
> Ignoring the fangirling I've been doing lately...
> 
> Please feel free to ask any and all questions you have and I will do my best to answer unless it spoils future chapters or pertains to the plot.
> 
> I love you all~
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty-One**

Surprisingly, the first one to visit him in the hospital wing after he woke wasn't Ron, Hermione, the Twins, or even Percy but Cedric Diggory. It seemed that the older teen had skipped Arithmancy the moment he had heard that Harry had woken up, with the blessing of his professor as he left. Percy was the second to arrive, as he had been coming from the greenhouses, but the Twins had Snape (who wouldn't have let them leave even if the castle was under attack), while Ron and Hermione were in Transfiguration. Harry was of the opinion that they might have been able to get away with it if they hadn't been ditching History of Magic everyday for the last week to come see him.

He was actually rather touched that they had gone through all that trouble for him but it still was slightly irritating to be informed of a visitor, allowed to get his hopes up on who it could be, and have someone that you didn't know standing above you after you had just shut your eyes for a minute.

He fought back the yelp when he opened his eyes to see Cedric Diggory above him. Cedric jumped back as well, just as startled. "Sorry," the Hufflepuff seeker apologized. "Madame Pomfrey sent word that you were awake."

Harry gave the other boy a small, shy smile not sure how to react to someone who wasn't Madame Pomfrey, Professor McGonagall, Hagrid or the Weasley family (plus Hermione of course) showing concern. The rest of the school never seemed to care if he died or not and some of them even seemed like they would prefer it if he did die on one of his many adventures. It wasn't all that heartwarming, if Harry was honest.

And since lying to himself was already becoming a bad habit, Harry was definitely trying to keep to honesty. It was bad enough that he kept telling himself to shut up during one of his and Gabriel's conversations. If he started actively lying to himself than they would have even more problems than they currently did.

Like the increase in their wings size. Harry didn't know how to describe the change in his wings as he was still getting use to having them (not to mention he had to do a double take when he only saw two extra appendages where he now  _knew_  that there should be six). Either way, before the Dementors attacked him, the wings could only just support his body a few inches from the ground.

Now Harry had to force himself not to stare as half his wing went through the freaking walls of the hospital wing. There would be no preventing people from walking through them anymore, much to his annoyance.

He had a horrible feeling that the increase in size had something to do with his miles long fall after he was pushed from his broom. From what Gabriel (that was even weirder than it had been now that he had memories of actually being Gabriel) had said his soul had been powering his Grace in effort to try and save him.

Somehow he got the feeling that it had done more than he'd originally thought. 'We didn't lose another year, did we?' he asked silently, easily keeping up light conversation with Cedric as he did so. He'd gotten much better at multitasking since the year before.

_'_ _No,'_  Gabriel denied.  _'We literally can't lose any more time than we already have. The fact that we're going to complete this at seventeen instead of twenty is dangerous enough. Any sooner and there won't be any saving us.'_

'I thought you didn't know for sure,' Harry accused. He wouldn't put it past himself to lie to him…

And there was the headache he knew and loved, Harry thought with a groan as the familiar throbbing of his temples start up once more.

_'_ _I didn't. Not until this latest incident.'_ Gabriel said though Harry could hear a smug satisfaction in the other's tone.  _'The sudden increase of Grace, powered by our soul, sent us into shock as soon as it was over. If the Grace had remained in our body, no matter how much CPR the Hufflepuff did, we still would have died.'_

'Is that why our wings are bigger?' Harry asked, chatting absently about Quidditch with Cedric in the background. The Hufflepuff was rather different than Harry had suspected, much more friendly and just generally a good person. Harry kind of wished that wasn't as much of a surprise as it was.

Looks like he was more jaded than he had thought.

_'_ _Remember what happened when we first regained them?'_ Gabriel asked before plowing on, already knowing the answer.  _'Well with the increase of Grace that nearly killed us and the fact that our soul was also powering said Grace, we suddenly had far too much of it in our system and that caused problems.'_

'I thought it was a combination of our Soul, Grace, and Magic reacting together to save us from the Dementors?' Well, at least that was the gist of what Gabriel had told him before.

_'_ _Somewhat.'_ Gabriel said.  _'At least that was the main problem. The increase of Grace in our system was a side effect of it coming into contact with our Soul. See, the human soul can act as a battery for Grace, giving it a power boost when they come into contact. So as soon as our Grace met our Soul, it was like dosing a fire with wood. It flared up so much that our wings weren't strong enough or big enough to drain the larger amount of Grace that it would take to keep the amount in our system from killing us. So in order to fix that problem, our wings grew to their full size in order to compensate. We're lucky we didn't end up with two set instead of just one with all that Grace that was filling us.'_

Harry sighed mentally. If he was hearing this right than there were so many different things that could have killed him. The more he learned, the more he found that it was a miracle that they were even still alive at all.

"Are you alright Harry?" Cedric asked, concerned from his seat. Harry gave the Hufflepuff a small smile and nodded.

"It's just a lot to take in," Harry said truthfully. "I never expected the game to end like that."

"Mum might have killed you if you had and still played anyways," a familiar male voice said from the door of the hospital wing. Turning to look, Harry grinned as Percy Weasley made his way over to the bed. "She and Dad have been here a few times to see you. Ron and Hermione have been banned from spending more than ten minutes at a time after they refused to leave from your bed for the first two days you were out."

Harry was grateful that Percy seemed to be avoiding the word 'coma'. He had no doubt that seeing him unresponsive in a hospital bed had brought up bad memories from the year before into everyone's minds. "The twins have yet to be caught in their visits but I have it on good authority that they spend every other night here," Percy told him with a sly grin that Harry returned. "Ginny would have been here as well but the Dementor brought forward some memories of last year and the professors are keeping a close eye on her."

Harry shot Percy a concerned look, opening his mouth to ask how she was doing but was interrupted by the banging of the hospital wing door as it slammed open to reveal a panting redhead and frizzy hair brunette standing there.

He barely had time to blink before he had two sets of arms wrapped around him, his own hugging them back.

Cedric might have been the first person there and Percy may have been the second but he was far more pleased to see his best friends than he had been to see either of them. He promised himself mentally, as he took in their tear streaked faces, that he would never do this to them again.

First thing he was going to do when he got out of here was go visit Professor Lupin.

* * *

Three days later and Harry was discharged from the hospital wing with strict instructions to avoid performing any magic until the end of the week. Hermione, of course, had collected all of his school work and had notes from every class prepared for him so that he could at least get started on his essays even if he couldn't begin working on the practical until the end of the week.

Ron and Hermione were reluctant to leave him alone but with his ban on practicing magic, Harry was on orders not to attend class as a 'just in case' preemptive measure. It seemed that Madame Pomfrey didn't trust him not to ignore her orders and try to participate in class anyways. She also didn't want him around too much stress, seeing as his heart had stopped less than a month ago. The nurse didn't think it would be a problem but…better safe than sorry.

Unfortunately every single professor he had agreed with her and he found himself bored out of his mind as everyone returned to classes while he remained in the dorm.

_'_ _We need to start getting back into shape,'_  Gabriel said forcefully.  _'Even before we spent two weeks unmoving and in a coma, we didn't practice with our sword nearly as much as we should have. We should have been able to fight off those Dementors but we have to experience in aerial combat at the moment. That needs to change.'_

Damn, Harry though in annoyance as he couldn't find fault in any of that reasoning. 'What about our orders not to stress ourselves?'

_'_ _It won't be a problem,'_  Gabriel told him confidently.  _'Our Grace is back to a nonlethal level and our Soul has been strengthened by the brief contact that it had with our Grace, which has strengthened our magic, making it more potent that it was before. Madame Pomfrey was able to sense the change in our magical core but she has no idea what caused it and that makes her wary. I agree that we should wait until the magic settles again before we use it but that doesn't mean we should just lay in bed all day either.'_

'Where are we going to practice then? We can't practice in here and anywhere else is just as risky. If people see us with a sword, they're going to want to know where it came from, Gabriel.' Harry reasoned though his hands itched to call his sword to him. The attack left him feeling vulnerable and Harry rather hated that feeling.

_'_ _We could always ask Fawkes,'_  Gabriel suggested.  _'He probably knows everything there is to know about this school with how long he's been frequenting these halls. The familiar bond between him and Dumbledore should also provide knowledge on the secrets that he doesn't already know.'_

'Yes, but he could also tell Headmaster Dumbledore about us,' Harry argued. 'Somehow I don't think the Headmaster will appreciate the fact that we've kept this secret from him.'

_'_ _Good point.'_  Gabriel conceded. They sat on their bed in silence until an idea struck them both.

_'_ _But the creatures of the Forbidden Forest won't.'_  Gabriel said gleefully.

'We could use our clearing to practice,' Harry added after a moment of thought. 'It's far enough into the forest that no one would be able to wander across us or see us practicing. And those that do aren't going to rat us out, not with the fact that we were the ones that put up the wards protecting the place. Even Aragog was polite to use once he knew we were the 'Great Tree Child' and Arcnomantula are normally anything but polite.'

_'_ _Exactly,'_ Gabriel said with glee.  _'So what are we waiting for?'_

The clearing turned out to be the perfect place for them to practice. The trees were tall enough to hide them from view as they appeared to be floating above the ground, wings pumping easily to support them. Aerial combat was more difficult than performing sword maneuvers on the ground as Harry had to remember to keep his wings moving as he performed them, less he end up face first in the dirt.

The select use of his wings, keeping himself at a steady level instead of travelling to a certain place took concentration. Harry learned that the hard way, ending up on the other side of the forest once when he wasn't paying enough attention as he moved his sword.

That wasn't the only thing they were practicing.

Now that Harry had finished his human memories and begun his memories as an angel, he needed to sort through them to keep from getting confused like he did whenever he woke up recently. It wouldn't do to wake up thinking he was a completely different person than he was at the moment, or to respond to the wrong name in class or in the halls.

That would be awkward. So he divided half his time into working with his sword and the other half was divided into two parts: organizing his memories and flying practice. Depending on which one he was doing the best during his practices, Harry switched between which of them he spent the most of the second half on. So far, the meant flying.

Even with the hundreds of lives he had lived and all the memories that he had gained during that time, organizing his memories still came easier to him than flying. Gabriel was of the opinion that this wasn't worrisome at all. According to the archangel, his mind was more organized due to the fact that he had been conversing with, essentially, his memories for over a year. Harry now  _knew_  how to locate his mind, how to manipulate it to keep certain thoughts hidden while only projecting others. This gave him an advantage when it came to working within his mind.

Flying was a different story; even with his first few memories of being an angel, Harry only knew how to use  _three_  pairs of wings. The memories were no help in teaching him what to do with only one pair and controlling where he ended up hadn't been a concern in those first few memories seeing as there hadn't been anywhere to actually go at that point.

Harry was on his own in that aspect and that made it all the much harder to do. It had been awhile since he had been without guidance from either Gabriel or his memories and he was left floundering as he attempted to figure it out on his own.

By the time the week ended, Harry had only made headway in his memories. It would take time to build up the wiry muscles that would come from using his sword and it would take even longer to be able to control his wings as he wanted to control them. No matter how much he desperately needed to learn these things and quickly, Harry knew that he wouldn't learn them without a lot of hard practice. None of this helped him with the fact that he was currently defenseless if he was cornered by the Dementors again. The minister had yet to move them from Hogwarts, though Harry didn't know why. He only knew that he wasn't going to be completely safe until he had some way of defending himself from the horrible creatures. Even behind the wards of the Forbidden Forest, where Grace made sure that the Dementors wouldn't be able to enter it, Harry knew that he couldn't go on like this.

Which meant that he needed to learn another, quicker, way of defending himself so that he would have something to fall back on if the Dementors tried again. Even if the Dementors were pulled from the school before Harry would need to defend himself against them, there was still the risk that he would run into them again before he turned seventeen and could actively use Grace to protect himself.

That was why once Madame Pomfrey cleared him for the use of magic on Saturday, Harry, accompanied by Ron and Hermione, made his way up to the Defense classroom.

Professor Lupin looked surprised to see them appear in his doorway. Whether that was because of their determined faces or the fact that it was a weekend didn't matter to Harry. "Hello, Ms. Ganger, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter," the man greeted them. "What can I do for you?"

It was Hermione who answered, cutting Harry off before he could say anything. "Can you teach us the Patronis Charm?" she asked, her eyes clearly saying to anyone that looked that 'no' wasn't an answer.

Professor Lupin looked at them before he looked to Harry, eyes considering. It seemed the professor was weighing his options before the man gave them all a small, gentle smile and nodded. "When did you want to begin?" he asked, the question an answer in itself as the three Gryffindors grinned brightly

He was answered by three blinding smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the pace for third year is finally picking up. Harry's out of the Hospital wing and taking measures to protect himself much more seriously than he has since the end of summer.
> 
> I really don't think anything in this chapter needs explaining, really. Mostly, it's just a final wrap up of the Dementor attack (for Harry at least) and introducing the lessons with Remus which Ron and Hermione will also be attending. Possibly the Twins as well, when they discover them. I always thought that it was weird that Harry was receiving lessons and neither Ron nor Hermione wanted to be a part of them. Especially Hermione, considering how bookwormish she is.
> 
> Anyways, like always, feel free to ask any and all questions and I will do my best to answer them!
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	23. Chapter 23

Remus Lupin was a slave driver. Harry hadn't noticed before during their classes, possibly because the man was still working on them with creatures and hadn't started on wand work with them yet, but Professor Lupin had decided that if he was going to teach them the Patronis, he was going to make sure they damn well mastered the charm.

Harry didn't know whether to thank the man or continue groaning in pain on the floor of the Defense classroom along with Ron. Hermione, somehow, was still standing though she looked just as exhausted as the both of them.

Professor Lupin seemed even more amused at their theatrics though the man was kind enough not to say anything to the downed children. "I must say, you three have made remarkable progress." He told them all, that deceivably gentle smile plastered on his face.

_'_ _Sadist,'_ Gabriel whimpered from inside their mind.  _'That man is a closet sadist.'_

'No arguments here,' Harry agreed silently as he forced himself to his feet. If anything this was going to make getting into shape easier. It would probably help his muscles develop more than working with his sword would have, otherwise.

_'_ _Or we'll die from being overworked,'_  Gabriel grumbled.

'Don't be melodramatic,' Harry told him, rolling his eyes as he hefted himself up. Great, now he was calling himself melodramatic. Like he didn't already have enough problems on his plate without adding that to the list.

Gabriel grumbled some more before falling quiet just as Professor Lupin began addressing them again. "In the last two weeks you've all managed to get a mist from your wands at least once," he praised them, pleased. "As you no doubt know, this is a feat that most adult wizards can't claim to have made. The Patronis requires intense focus just as much as it requires perfected wand work and a strong will. The happy memory that it's based off of can do nothing for the charm if you don't learn how to focus that happiness and direct it towards the charm."

This was something that Professor had been stressing since they had first come to him for lessons and Harry found that it helped him in more than just the Patronis. His transfiguration work had also improved using the method that his professor was describing.

He wasn't the only one taking the lesson to heart as Hermione's charm work improved and Ron had begun working harder on his own spell work, though he focused more on jinxes that Fred and George had taught him than on class work. The improvement was still there, though. It just took Ron longer to manage than it did him or Hermione. Harry wondered if it had something to do with Ron's rather hot-headed temperament than anything else. Hermione was the calmer of them both and she was the first that had produced the fine mist of her beginning Patronis.

It was just before the winter holidays that Professor McGonagall finally discovered Havoc and Tinker's existence.

Havoc and Tinker had become the unofficial mascots of Gryffindor Tower, making small amount of mischief every now and then and generally just endearing themselves to the entirety of the Tower. Even Percy liked the two pixies and it was one of the few times the redhead didn't go running off to inform a teacher that a rule was being broken.

In fact, Percy and the older Gryffindors seemed to like the two pixies as much as Harry did. Tinker, living up to his name, was rather adapt at fixing small things broke or shattered in the Tower. This included quills and inkwells that had either snapped or had fallen to the floor. Harry didn't know what kind of magic Tinker was using but it was became a common thing for Harry to find the pixie slowly reassembling a bust inkwell while a first year watched on in awe. It was cute, Harry decided after the third time he'd come across such a scene.

Havoc also lived up to his name as well. The pixie kept to their original agreement to be on his best behavior in the Tower but that didn't mean that he couldn't mess with people  _outside_  of the Tower. It was unsurprising that Havoc got along famously with the Weasley Twins and Harry suspected that some of the more recent pranks they'd pulled had been with the pixie's help.

It was during one of the few times when Tinker had enlisted Havoc's help to fix a broken jewelry box that one of the older girls (a third year) had brought down to the common room that Professor McGonagall walked into the common room, for a reason Harry never did discover, and paused to stare at the odd sight of two pixies reassembling a jewelry box while a group of first years and a third year watched them.

It had been a close call but after every older student, including Percy, came forward with a list of things that the two pixies had helped with (conveniently leaving out the fact that Havoc was usually in the company of the Weasley Twins), the stern Professor had conceded the point. Harry was sure that the only reason she had backed down was because the entire House was protesting against their banishment. Well, that and the fact that they had been there since the first Defense lesson of the previous year and hadn't caused any real harm in that time period that she knew of. It helped that Havoc had the most convincing puppy dog eyes Harry had ever seen.

_The Monster Book of Monsters_  Harry had named Ruth had also become rather like a beloved pet in the common room. Harry wasn't sure why he had such an effect on sentient things but Ruth was almost like a cat with how it would brush up against the legs of the nearest person, demanding attention. It was becoming an on-going joke between the Gryffindors to bet on what Harry would bring to the common room next.

It was becoming a common belief that Harry would end up with a small herd of different animals and sentient objects following him around by the time he graduated. Harry didn't really know what to think about that considering that he had already been forced to talk Buckbeak out of following him into the castle at the end of his Care of Magical Creature's class, to the bemusement of the other members of the class. Even the Slytherin's weren't sure what to think of the weekly argument Harry had with the prideful Hippogriff.

Gabriel was no help as the archangel was all for the Hippogriff coming with them. Apparently, Gabriel didn't care if it would cause chaos or not, just that Buckbeak was another 'cute' animal that he wanted to keep.

Harry sometimes wondered about his archangel self's sanity. Just because an animal was 'cute' didn't mean that it couldn't very easily kill someone if it happened to get upset. In fact, Buckbeak still glared at Malfoy whenever he saw the blond pounce. Harry was just glad that Malfoy's self-preservation kept him from going within twenty feet of the irate animal.

He was more glad that meant that Malfoy was also usually about twenty feet away from him as well. Harry never denied to being self-serving every once in a while.

Then, in what felt like a blink of an eye, it was Christmas break and Harry was once again leaving the castle behind to spend Christmas with the Weasley family.

Headmaster Dumbledore had seemed like he was going to put up a fight at first. Obviously, Sirius Black was still an issue that needed to be dealt with yet something still felt wrong to Harry about the entire situation. If Black wanted him dead, just why would he wait twelve years to break out from Azkaban? Being his father's best friend, Harry knew that Black would likely know about his muggle relatives. Hell, even if he wanted to wait until Harry was at Hogwarts, that didn't explain why Black hadn't broken out to come after him in his first year!

Something had caused Black to decide to break out of Azkaban. Something had motivated him and Harry had doubts to whether or not that something was him.

"So, Harrykins," one of the Twins began, dragging Harry back out of his thoughts.

He could dwell on the motives of Sirius Black at a later time.

* * *

Christmas at the Weasley's felt weird, with two of their members not joining them. Bill and Charlie had both been unable to get the holiday off this year. Bill was in the middle of a job for the goblins and Charlie was helping with a newly nesting mother. Apparently, this breed of dragon nested during the winter months instead of summer, like most dragons and Charlie was the only one that the dragon let get close to her nest.

The house felt strangely empty without every Weasley there, Harry noted as he watched Fred and George tear open their presents. Without the oldest of them there, the Twins were the first to open presents. It was no surprise to anyone that most of their presents were prank themed. Christmas was likely the only time that Molly Weasley turned a blind eye to her twin sons' mischief.

While the Twins were distracted by their newest possessions, Percy began unwrapping his own presents. Besides the traditional Weasley sweater, Harry had gotten him a book on Transfiguration and Charms, the two subjects that Percy liked the most. Ron, Ginny and the Twins combined forces to give him a new book on rare spells that had him beaming. Yet his favorite gift was the summer interview his father had arranged at the Ministry for him.

Harry didn't think he had ever seen the most well mannered of the Weasley children that excited before. Arthur seemed to be proud that his gift was being so well received, beaming at his third eldest child in happiness.

Ron went next, humming in happiness at the broom care kit that Harry had gotten him. Harry knew that Ron would have protested anything else, still humming over the new wand that he'd gotten with the birthday money from Harry. He hadn't looked forward to replacing Charlie's old wand with Bill's. Harry didn't really mind spoiling his friends but he knew that Ron would find some way to label it as charity if he didn't tone it down until his next birthday.

_'_ _Maybe we should get him some Quidditch gear?'_  Gabriel suggested. Harry considered the idea before shelving it for future observation. It did have merit to it.

Ron also received a book from Hermione, this one on famous Quidditch players, much to Ron's delight. Percy, the Twins, and Ginny had chipped in to get him a new Chudley Cannons poster from their newest game and he got a traditional Weasley sweater and some fudge from his parents. The redhead was rather pleased with his newest possessions and beamed his pleasure to all of them.

Ginny, once again going before Harry at his insistence, received a necklace made of…radishes? Harry looked at the item in bemusement as Ginny explained the necklace had come from her friend Luna. There was something off about that necklace but even looking at it, Harry couldn't tell what he was supposed to be seeing.

_'_ _Some sort of blessing,'_  Gabriel agreed in his head.  _'I have no clue which one though. That girl is an enigma.'_

Putting aside the necklace, Ginny opened the rest of her gifts. Her parents had gotten her a newish winter cloak to replace her old one that was rather tattered. The burnt red of the cloak went rather well with her tan skin and red hair, Harry noted as the girl immediately put the cloak on. Ron, the Twins, and Percy had gotten her a book. Harry was unable to read the title as Ginny quickly hid it away, her face turning an interesting pink color as her siblings laughed. He was missing something, he just knew it.

Harry's gift was opened last and Ginny practically pounced on him after seeing what it was. After a year of getting to know the girl, Harry had realized rather quickly that Ginny was a tomboy. She could appreciate some girly things, like jewelry and make-up, but she also loved sports and fighting. So Harry had gotten her a book set on curses and the like that would give her an edge in any of the fights that she got into.

He also figured that she would appreciate the hidden broom that was waiting for her in her dorm at Hogwarts. Sometimes being mentally older than his friends was handy, especially when getting gifts for friends. He really didn't want to deal with the disapproving looks that giving her a broom would have gotten from the rest of the Weasley's, thank you very much.

Harry himself had a rather large pile of gifts to open. Luna had sent him some sort of amulet that was carved in Holly wood. Harry blinked at the strange symbols on the amulet, the words seeming to shift whenever he looked at it.  _'Impressive,'_  Gabriel said, his voice showing his pleasure at the gift. Harry fascined the amulet to his robes, glad that he had thought to give the girl a present as well.

From the Weasley's, he received a Weasley sweater to go with his other two from previous Christmas', a book on household charms, and fudge. He raised his eyes at the Twins, Percy, Ginny, and Ron when he looked at the books but all he received were snickers. Deciding that he didn't care if he appeared childish, Harry stuck his tongue out at them all, causing even more laughter to fill the room.

Hagrid's present had to be one of his favorites, though. To go with his previous gift themes, Hagrid had sent him another hand carved gift. The carving was of Buckbeak, Tinker, Havoc, and Ruth. Harry had to laugh at the ridiculous scene that the hippogriff, two pixies, and a sentient book made together. It would join his other gifts in his trunk until he had someplace to display them at.

The rest of the day was spent out in the yard, swinging snowballs at each other. Percy tried to bow out at first but reluctantly joined them as Harry, Ron, and Ginny forced him from the house and into the snow bank outside the door.

It was quickly discovered that Percy, being seventeen, could use magic and did so without any mercy. Not even the twins were spared from the onslaught of snowballs that the seventeen flung at them, grinning widely as his shield charm kept their retaliation against him.

Four hours later, they surrendered and Percy called off the snowballs, laughing at their drowned puppy look as the Twins managed to dump a bucket of snow over his head while he was distracted.

In the end, they retreated inside the house drenched to the bone and laughing loudly. Molly took one look at them before shaking her head in exasperation and ordering them upstairs to dry off and change into dry clothes.

Molly had diner on the table by the time that they returned downstairs and the rest of the night was spent reading and listening to the Wizarding Wireless. Percy eventually retreated back upstairs to finish off his homework and to read his newest books. Harry was playing a game of chess against Ron, getting his ass thoroughly kicked by the redhead. Really, it was impressive how badly that he was being trashed by his best friend.

In all, Harry thought with a grin and Ron happily proclaimed Checkmate, he could get used to having Christmas' like this.

It was nice to have a family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this is not my favorite chapter. At all. But even after a few days of tweaking and all but rewriting it, I've just decided that it's going to be one of those chapters that I'll never be pleased with and just call it quits while I'm ahead. It was bound to happen at least once in this story. Considering I've only had one other big problem before now (that was the fault of the chapter and not electronics, that it) I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and go with it.
> 
> There isn't really anything big in this chapter but if you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I'll clarify where I can.
> 
> You're all amazing!
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	24. Chapter 24

Winter break wasn't all fun and games, however. Harry still needed to practice, even during the holidays. Muscle memory was something that wasn't going to fix itself; Harry needed to focus if he wanted to get into shape. Being able to defend himself was something that was becoming increasingly more necessary the longer that he spent within the magical world. Half the population was hailing him as their savior (Gabriel snorted, as he always did when that particular truth was brought up) and the other half wanted him dead.

 _'_ _Hard truths,'_  Gabriel winced. It was beginning to get easier, as time went along, to converse with Gabriel without zoning out from the rest of the world. Hermione barely ever snapped at him to get his attention anymore and Ron looked less worried than he had been getting in previous months. It wasn't perfect, he still had his moments when he lost himself when thinking about some of the memories that he had gained but it was an improvement. One that he had desperately needed.

Being winter break didn't make finding time to practice any easier. Ron, the Twins, and Ginny always seemed to have something for him to do to occupy his time and Harry was already beginning to twitch in irritation at the amount of effort it took to get time alone. Luckily, Percy was the one to step in when it was becoming obvious that Harry was about to blow.

The oldest of the Weasley siblings that were present was far more observant to his surroundings than the rest of the Weasley's. Except the Twins but Harry was half convinced that they were doing it on purpose at this point anyways so where or not they noticed was a moot point. Harry was at the edge of his patience. He liked spending time with the Weasley's. He loved spending time with them, actually. That didn't mean that he didn't want to have some time to himself, even if Ron and Ginny seemed more than pleased to attempt to spend every waking moment around him.

Ron was his best friend but…there was only so much of one person Harry could take. Even at Hogwarts they weren't attached at the hip; Harry was always going off on his own when he was tired of company. The Twins weren't making things easier on him either, in fact the two of them seemed to delight in pouncing on him during his rare moments of alone time.

Three days until the end of Winter Break and Percy finally stepped in, carefully distracting the Twins by purposely stepping into one of their pranks (and  _when_  had the two of them had time to booby-trap the back door?). As the two redheaded menaces broke down in laughter, Harry was able to slip outside the front door after a grateful nod in Percy's direction.

The usually posh and mannered redhead gave him a sly wink, one of the few actions that allowed Harry to see the resemblance to his twin brothers in his face, and grinned back. While the twins were rather sure that Percy was lacking of sense of humor, it was still there. Just far more…restrained than the rest of his brothers. Harry was pretty sure that Percy enjoyed letting them think that he was a stick in the mud, if only for the inside jokes he could create with others in times like this.

The silence that accompanied living away from large chunks of civilization was like a symphony to his ears. One of the perks of his near death experience hadn't been increased magical power (as if he needed something else he had to learn to control) but the affect that it had on his senses. When he started regaining his memories, Harry had gained certain skills that he hadn't had before; the ability to see magic for example.

Now it was like someone had lifted a blindfold off of his eyes and he could see the world clearly for the first time. He found that he didn't even need his glasses anymore, not really. In fact, wearing them was starting to make his head hurt as they blurred the world out of focus. He just didn't know how to explain the fact that he suddenly didn't need them anymore. Sure, no one had ever reacted to Dementors in that fashion before but it was unlikely that they wouldn't find it fishy that his near death experience had fixed his eyes.

It wasn't like he could tell them the truth, either. Even if by some miracle they believed him when he told them that he was an archangel, he didn't really know himself why his eyes were suddenly fixed. Even Gabriel agreed that it was rather strange that their Grace would choose  _that_  moment to fix his eyes instead of when he was in the Chamber or when they had first reunited.  _'Nothing like this has ever happened before,'_  Gabriel had said when Harry had asked. They were the first angel (arch or otherwise) to ever be brought back in this manner so they were flying blind on this.

Sometimes, Harry thought as he slammed into one of the higher tree branches, that was more literal than most people meant. His head gave a painful throb from where he had hit it on the tree. He longed for the days where he wouldn't have to worry about crashing; days that were looking farther and farther away the more he practiced.

 _'_ _You just need to get your balance right,'_  Gabriel tried to encourage.  _'It's like learning to walk, we'll get it eventually.'_

'Somehow I don't think toddlers have this much problem learning how to walk,' Harry grumbled grumpily. His head was throbbing and his wings were twitching behind him in response to his irritation.

 _'_ _You're thinking too hard,'_  Gabriel sighed, likely just as irritated as Harry was.  _'Stop focusing on the movement of your wings and focus more on the air currents around you.'_

This was advice that he had heard before but it was harder than that. Harry was painfully  _aware_  of his wings; he had been ever since he had first regained them. He knew that they weren't actually a part of his body but a manifestation of his Grace. To his eyes though, they had feathers that were a variety of green and gold. To his mind, he could feel them up against his back and he could feel the joints that attached them to his shoulder blades. The fact that they, technically, weren't actually there wasn't doing him any good at all.

So it was really hard to focus on anything else besides them. It had been easier when they had been smaller and he hadn't had to worry about accidently finding himself in Antarctica if he wasn't careful. Even with only one pair, having them full sized opened up far more dangerous possibilities than Harry was really comfortable with.

"Perhaps you should ask your pixie friends for advice?" A dreamy voice asked from behind him. "It doesn't look pleasant to run into trees like that."

Harry jumped, his wings flaring outwardly as he whipped around in his surprise. The combination of the three movements sent him flipping backwards and landing roughly into the snow beneath him. "Oh dear," the voice that belonged to Luna Lovegood said from in front of him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm okay," Harry moaned, ignoring the pain that was flaring in his back. He sat up easily, his wings helping push him forward off the ground in a way that surprised him. He hadn't meant to use them instead of his arms.

 _'_ _See!'_  Gabriel crowed in victory.  _'I told you that you were focusing on them too hard!'_

Harry fought the urge to roll his eyes. He'd already known that, thanks. It was figuring out how to move them without focusing on them that he was having trouble with!

"You don't seem to be able to fly very well," Luna said, the observation not as biting as it might have been due to the dreamy hue of her voice. "Did you forget how?" she asked, titling her head to the side in a very bird-like way.

 _'_ _You can say that again.'_  Gabriel grumbled, ignoring the question all together.

'Hush,' Harry scolded before turning his attention to the question. "It's not that I forgot how," Harry told her. Well, not anymore at least but semantics. "It's more that I'm missing a few wings."

It surprised him how easy it was to answer her question at all, never mind that someone knew enough to even ask it. The fact that she could actually see his wings, the only other person able to see them besides him, relieved a giant weight off of his chest. A weight that he hadn't even been aware was there.

Luna glanced at his wings, her eyes momentarily focusing on where the other two pair should have been before she nodded. "I suppose it would be hard to fly without all your wings," she replied, her voice just a shade less dreamy than he was used to. "Is that why you don't fly very high?"

Just how long had she been standing there watching him? Harry wondered, somewhat unsettled by the thought of her having stood there and watched him without saying anything. "If I fly too high there's a good chance I'll end up in China on accident," he told her honestly.

 _'_ _Or space.'_ Gabriel added in helpfully.

'Hush!' Harry hissed back. The last thing he needed was to divide his attention in two different directions at the moment. He was trying to  _not_  focus on things to hard!

"Papa says that talking to yourself is a sign of a creative mind," Luna told him. Harry stared at her in shock. "I suppose that you must have a really creative mind to be able to get an answer."

"I reckon you're right," Harry said numbly as Gabriel seemed to direct all of his attention onto Luna. Just how had she known that he and Gabriel had been talking? He'd barely said more than a few words to him since she'd shown up!

Luna smiled serenely at him and reached out to brush her hand against his wing. Harry nearly gasped at the sensation of pleasure that her touch caused and he leaned the appendage closer to her in response.

They sat like that for a long time. Luna gently rubbed her fingers against his feathers while Harry allowed himself to bliss out at the sensation. He could definitely understand why Hedwig loved it when he stroked her wings, he thought as gentle fingers caressed green and gold feathers.

The sound of Ron's voice calling his name through the trees broke Harry out of his haze and, reluctantly, he pulled his wing back. Luna looked at the appendage in disappointment. "I'll see you later, then?" He asked and received a dreamy smile in return as the girl stood from the snow.

He waved a farewell as he headed off in the direction of the Burrow once more, not nearly as stressed as he had been for the last few weeks.

 _'_ _I'm sure it had nothing to do with that wonderful petting we just got,'_  Gabriel snickered in the back of his mind.

Harry steadily ignored him.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter has been out on FF.net for a while now, however not long after posting it on that site, my laptop died. Thankfully, due to problems with my laptop in the past, I keep backup files on a USB for all of my stories. I apologize again for the delay and unfortunately, it will likely be awhile before I'm able to update anything as I now have to go to the library to do any typing whatsoever.

Going back to Hogwarts was both a relief and a disappointment. It was nice to be back in the castle, don't get him wrong. Hogwarts was a wonderful place to be and he honestly loved the time he spent there. However, this year returning to Hogwarts also meant being surrounded once again by Dementors and Harry was more than wary of being within reach of the foul creatures again.

It seemed that he wasn't the only one that considered the possibility of the Dementors trying again. Professor Lupin was once again in their compartment, although this time he wasn't sleeping. Harry grinned in welcome to the professor as he, along with Hermione and Ron, filed into the compartment.

"Harry," the professor greeted with a gentle smile before turning to greet Ron and Hermione as well. "I hope your holidays went well."

Hermione immediately launched into an indepth explanation of every gift she had received. Harry was actually surprised she had managed to keep quiet for as long as she had. Sharing an amused glance with Ron as the professor seemed to become more and more dazed with every word Hermione spouted, he turned to look outside of the train window.

Adult back up or not, it never hurt to be wary.

Thankfully, there were no unexpected attacks on the way back to the school or even on the way up to the castle. In fact, Harry even made it through the entire first week back without anything unexpected happening.

While he was grateful for the extended break that he was receiving, he knew for a fact that it was only the calm before the storm. Ever since his first year at Hogwarts, something dangerous had always been going on in the background. Things that most the students in the castle hadn't even been aware of and Harry wasn't deluded enough to think that he was always going to know what, exactly, was going on.

He did finally figure out why he got suck a weird reading for Professor Lupin, though. Admittedly, Harry hadn't been all that concerned about it so he hadn't really given the matter much thought. The long list of information he'd been storing away whenever he found something about the man that was strange to him just finally clicked together in his head. 'You couldn't have told me that he was a werewolf?' Harry grouched.

 _'And ruin all your fun?'_ Gabriel asked, a touch of mischief in his tone. It looks like Harry could add pranking himself to the long list of things that would cause other people worry but mostly ended up just annoying him.

'I hate you.' Harry informed him cheerfully.

 _'Self-depreciation isn't good for you,'_ Gabriel replied, just as cheerfully.

Harry ignored him.

The lack of anything life threatening as gave Harry time to ponder the enigma that was Luna Lovegood. Specifically, Harry and Gabriel were analyzing their last meeting with the younger girl in the forest around the Burrow. The things that Luna had done and said _shouldn't have been possible._ It should have been completely and utterly impossible for Luna to have been able to actually touch their wings. There had never been a case of a mortal actually touching an angel's wings before in the whole of creation. Not to mention she seemed to know when Harry and Gabriel were talking, which other than being impossible was just plain creepy.

They'd looked her over up and down multiple times, analyzing everything about her magic and her aura. Luna had even sat down with them at different points during the week so that they could have a longer period of time to analyze her. In the end, there was nothing about her that they hadn't seen before in humans with the ability to see things that most couldn't. Her aura had a slight dark edge to it, likely from the period of time that she'd witnessed her mother die and that was it. Nothing out of the ordinary (or as ordinary as Luna ever got).

So if there was nothing about Luna that was all that different then they were left with the only other explanation: there was something different about _them._

In truth, that was more worrying than there being something off about Luna. If Luna could touch their wings, that meant that something from his time as a human had changed him enough that normal angelic rules didn't apply. Harry wasn't all to comforted by that and he knew for a fact that Gabriel was beyond uncomfortable with the very idea of it.

From what Harry could gather, the wings of an angel were an extension of Grace, which was the angelic equivalent of a human soul. It was supposed to be impossible for anyone other than at least another angel of greater power to even think about touching them, let alone stroking them like Luna had. So if that rule no longer applied to them, what other rules could they throw out the window?

The horrifying thing was that neither Harry nor Gabriel had any idea what other rules they no longer had to worry about or what the rules for their current situation applied to them at all. Frankly speaking, Harry's body should have imploded on itself the moment that it made contact with their Grace, whether or not their soul was immediately re-absorbed into their Grace due to his status as an archangel. So that left them with a bit of a problem on their hands.

From what Harry could tell, they weren't in any immediate danger of finding out the hard way but with a possible mass murderer (they still weren't all that convinced on the truth of the matter) out to kill him, that wasn't all that comforting. The last thing they needed was to end up in a life or death situation only to find out what they could and couldn't do.

He'd had just about enough of those already, thank you very much.

Yet talk of Sirius Black still filled the castle halls, the children certain that the man would make another attempt to infiltrate the castle once more.

The Dementors also still posed a very real threat. The Minister had officially announced that they would be removed from the school yet the dangerous abominations still remained positioned just outside of the school wards. From the displeased glower of staff and student alike, the Minister wasn't making any friends as he procrastinated in removing the soul sucking monsters. Headmaster Dumbledore was looking more and more grim as the days past and the Dementors remained. If the Minister didn't get a move on removing the Dementors soon, Harry was sure that the Headmaster might blow another gasket at the man.

That was another thing that Harry had only recently heard about. It seemed that after his attack, Dumbledore had actually been witnessed shouting at the Minister. Apparently, the yelling could be heard within two floors of the Hospital Wing. Looking at the man from his seat at the Gryffindor table, Harry could only be impressed that the man still had the lung capacity for such things.

The resumed lessons with Professor Lupin were slowly showing improvement on his Patronus. Hermione and Ron still had brightly lit wisps coming from their wands, just like they had before the winter break so Harry had expected the same results from his own attempts.

Yet as he focused on the memory of meeting Sol and his sisters for the first time, the only happy memory that he had that produced the best results, and cast the spell, Harry was rewarded with something just a little more defined than a wisp of light.

"What is that?" Ron asked, distracted from his own attempt has he caught sight of Harry's Patronus.

Professor Lupin looked just as stunned. Instead of a recognizable animal, Harry's Patronis looked like a deformed bird. What was clearly wings extended from what looked like solid light.

 _'Huh,'_ Gabriel commented as Harry examined the Patronus. _'I guess that answers that question.'_

'What question?' Harry asked, eyeing the Patronus as it began flying around the room.

 _'The Patronus Charm is a very light spell,'_ Gabriel began. _'As you know, the most basic form of the charm is that of a wisp of light. The more you practice and gain mastery over the charm, the more that your Patronus begins to take the shape of your most basic representation which usually presents itself as an animal.'_

'How would that work with us?' Harry wondered. He knew all this already, having looked up the charm before leaving for the winter holidays. However he hadn't really considered the fact that, as an archangel, the charm might work differently for him. It seemed that though he hadn't thought of it, Gabriel had.

 _'Apparently, our most basic representation is that of an angel,'_ Gabriel replied easily as the winged ball of light flew past them. _'Angels, unlike humans, don't really have a solid form. Other than our wings, our bodies are just a mass of light. Even our wings, though they appear feathered, are just light given form. It's why Luna shouldn't have been able to touch them. You can't touch light.'_

'So our Patronus is an angel?' Harry asked skeptically as the ball of light continued exploring with four sets of bewildered eyes following it.

 _'From what I'm seeing? Yup.'_ Gabriel sounded fascinated at the discovery. _'Or it is at the moment, at least.'_

"What is it?" Harry asked hesitantly, well aware that he needed to act like he had no clue what he was looking at. 'What do you mean at the moment?'

 _'If I'm right, the Patronus Charm is attempting to find the animal that represents us the most.'_ Gabriel began. _'To do that, it would need to read our soul but instead of locking onto just our soul, it's picking up readings from our Grace as well.'_

"I have no idea," the professor admitted, frowning as the Patronus got bored and dissipated. "Have you seen anything like that before?"

Harry shook his head, consoling himself with the knowledge that he wasn't really lying. His memories as an angel presented themselves a bit differently than the Patronus, as regular angels weren't exactly around at that point. 'I wonder why our Grace is affecting it,' Harry mused to himself. 'It was nothing but a wisp of light before the holidays so why is it suddenly forming now?'

 _'No clue. It's possible that as our Grace becomes more stable, the Patronus Charm is more likely to pick up readings from it. We'll have to try focusing on channeling only magic when we cast the spell from now on. Hopefully that'll overpower the readings that it's getting from our Grace.'_ Gabriel proposed after a moment of consideration.

Harry pulled out his wand an attempted the Patronus returned to being a wisp. Professor Lupin brushed the odd event as Harry only partially forming his Patronus correctly, much to their relief and he returned to helping Hermione and Ron with finding the right memory.

'We're going to have to be more careful,' Harry thought with a sigh. There was no telling what would happen to other spells if his Grace started to influence them in small ways. Would it make them more powerful or would it change the spell completely? Harry didn't think it would be smart to find out anytime soon.

_'Agreed.'_

* * *

Luckily for them, the incident with their Patronus was quickly brushed off and forgotten. The next two weeks remained rather uneventful as Harry returned to training with his sword and practicing using his wings whenever he could find the time to get away from the castle. With Ron and Hermione now knowing about Hope and her foals, Harry didn't have to come up with an excuse to sneak away anymore. His two friends just assumed that he was going to visit the unicorn family.

At night, Harry organized his memories before going to bed. He found that the process made it much easier to sleep at night and he could complete it faster and faster as time went on. Each memory was categorized by the name he'd had during that life and then 'shelved' in the order that they had happened. So far his memories from his current life and his time as Gabriel were the smallest of them all.

All in all, Harry was beginning to fall into a pattern and he loved every minute of it. The school year was finally looking up and to make matters that much better, the Minister had finally removed all of the Dementors from the school so Harry no longer had to worry about keeping an eye out for them either.

Quidditch, due to the attack at the pitch, had been cancelled during the weeks that he'd been unconscious but there was talk amongst the teachers to restart the season next week. There wasn't anything concrete yet, just a rumor. A rumor that Harry and the rest of the members of the Quidditch teams prayed was true. Harry hadn't realized how much he would miss the sport until he had found a sudden lack of it in his life.

Life at Hogwarts was finally looking up.

That should have been the first clue that something was going to come along and ruin everything and very soon. Harry should have been expecting it, waiting for it even.

He wasn't and when the other shoe dropped, he'd been just as caught off guard as the rest of his friends.

It had started with a simple visit to Hagrid's. Nothing that was out of the realm of normal and nothing that was all that earth shattering. It wasn't even that bad of a day outside. The snow on the ground was faded and melting and February was just around the corner.

Then Hagrid had darted back into his room and returned with a squirming rat in his hands and suddenly the visit changed. And unfortunately, it wasn't a change for the better.

"Scabbers!" Ron shouted, flying to his feet and accepting the rat with glee. Hermione looked vindicated from her seat on the opposite side of Harry but remained silent. She could rub the fact that she was right in Ron's face later.

"Found 'im hidin' from Buckbeak a few days 'go." Hagrid told the beaming redhead. "Thought that yeh might be missin' 'im."

What had he been doing down by the forbidden forest? Harry wondered as Ron hugged the rat to his chest. Rats weren't the brightest animals but he knew for a fact that they knew enough not to leave a perfectly warm place filled with plenty of food. The timing was too close to be a coincidence and Harry felt suspicion prick in the back of his mind.

A suspicion that was quickly forgotten in favor of more pressing matters just a half-hour later as they made their way back up to the castle and the rat in Ron's hands began going nutts. The squirming creature made a break for it only to be caught by Ron just before it had reached the Whomping Willow. That should have been the end of it.

It wasn't.

A black dog, nearly as big as Harry himself, made sure of that. Leaping from the bushes not too far from them, none of them had time to react as Ron was toppled over and dragged towards the base of the violent tree.

"Ron!" Hermione screamed as they both booked it after the screaming redhead. Harry fought the urge to manifest his angel blade as he ran. When Ron was pulled into a secret tunnel in the base of the tree, Harry pushed his feet that much faster. Who knew where that tunnel lead?

The Whomping Willow seemed to make a move to attack them but Harry flared his wings behind him in warning. The tree, likely in self-preservation, thought better of it and he and Hermione made it to the tunnel without problem.

Harry didn't pause as he climbed into the dirt filled path and he didn't wait for Hermione to follow him as he began making his way forward. He knew that she was behind him and it wasn't Hermione that he was currently worried for. It was Ron, whose screams were forebodingly absent from the tunnel.

Harry was also slightly stunned. That dog had come out of nowhere. It hadn't even registered on Harry's radar until it had gone after Ron.

That was another thing that was bothering him. Why had the dog gone after Ron? Harry could understand why it didn't go after him, animals tended to be more perceptive than humans and it would know that Harry could have easily ended it if it had attacked him. Yet out of the three of them, the weakest of them was Hermione, not Ron. The redhead was stronger than Hermione and bigger in build. So why Ron?

He didn't know. Gabriel didn't have any answers either. They were both completely clueless.

Harry didn't like it.

"Oh my god," Hermione muttered behind him as they came to a set of stairs. "Harry, I think we're at the Shrieking Shack!"

"The what?" Harry hissed back as he began climbing the stairs. Fresh streaks of blood covered the wood and Harry had to force himself not to begin panicking as Gabriel began making threats in the back of their head.

"It's an abandoned shack not too far from Hogsmeade," she whispered to him as they reached the top of the stairs. The room around them was in shambles, Harry noted absently as he located the trail of blood on the floor. "The villagers say that, years ago, sounds of howling and destruction used to come from hear. They say that it's haunted so no one ever goes near it."

Haunted? Harry frowned as he took a better look at the room around them. "A ghost didn't do this," he told her as he pointed to claw marks that slashed into the wood of the wall. "Even Peeves isn't this destructive."

Hermione didn't say anything, frowning at the damage. "You're right. But what did?"

And was it still there? Harry finished for her, gripping his wand tightly in his hand. The urge to call on his angel blade grew stronger.

A destroyed door swayed in the wind, the trail of blood leading off into the room behind it. Harry extended his hand in front of Hermione as he inched forward with his wand at the ready. She stopped behind him, likely raising her own wand in preparation.

Harry moved to the opposite wall facing the opening slowly. Peering into the room, he could see Ron on the bed, gaping at something behind the door. Harry frowned. Turning towards Hermione, he pointed to behind the door.

Dirt covered her hair and face and a scratch on her cheek was bleeding. She nodded, closing her eyes in preparation. _'I don't like this,'_ Gabriel hissed.

'Doesn't matter,' Harry said back as he gave up all pretenses at being quiet and pushed his hand against the door. 'Ron's hurt. No one knows we went to see Hagrid and Hagrid doesn't know that we never made it back to the castle. Unless someone saw that dog grab Ron and us going after it, back up isn't coming.'

 _'Damnit!'_ Gabriel cursed. _'First sign of this getting worse, get our blade out. Consequences be damned.'_

Harry didn't respond. Steeling himself, he walked into the room. Ron's eyes snapped towards him immediately. "Harry! Go, run!" the redhead practically wailed. "The dog! It's not a dog! He's not a dog!"

Shit! Harry spun around, wand at the ready as the door slammed closed with Hermione on the other side revealing a black haired man with shaggy hair and crazed eyes. A man Harry had seen before on wanted posters. Sirius Black.

 _'What?!'_ Gabriel practically yelled in their head. Harry couldn't help himself, he gaped. Since when did people turn into animals?!

"Don't move," he warned the man, wand trained on him.

Black wasn't looking at him though. Crazed black eyes were trained past him. Frowning Harry followed the gaze and found Ron. _'Just what is going on here?'_ Gabriel groaned.

"Why did you attack Ron?" Harry snapped at the man, drawing Black's attention to him. "Out of all of us, why Ron?"

'Come on Hermione,' he prayed silently. 'Go get help. He hasn't realized you're here yet, get out of here and go get help!'

Yet she remained behind the door, her magic shining brightly between the cracks of the wood. What was she doing?!

"What?" Black rasped, finally noticing him. He was studying Harry as if he had never seen him before, as if Harry had done something that was unexpected.

"Why attack Ron?" Harry asked again, taking a few steps backwards in the direction of his redheaded friend. "You could have grabbed any of us, but you went straight for Ron. Why?"

 _'When in doubt, keep the crazy person talking,'_ Gabriel commented in his head, seemingly just as focused as Harry.

Black was frowning now, looking rather confused. "I…"

"It doesn't make sense," Harry said, still backing up. He wanted to be close enough to Ron in case Black tried something. "Out of the three of us, Ron was the farthest from the bushes that you were in. Yet you went past us and straight for him. So I'm asking, why Ron?"

Black stared at him before laughing. Loudly. "Just like Lily," he said. "James never would have noticed. He would be yelling and threatening me, not questioning why I done it."

That sounded a lot like reminiscing, Harry thought with a frown. Fond reminiscing.

 _'Why would someone who betrayed them be doing that?'_ Gabriel mumbled in their head. Harry had to wonder the same thing.

According to Lupin, Black had been the one to give them up to Voldemort. The story had felt a tad two dimensional then and being faced with the man didn't change that. If Black had really been after him like everyone had spent the year thinking, he would have grabbed Harry instead of Ron. Harry had been the one closest to the bushes.

So why Ron? "That's nice," Harry said sarcastically. "Now why don't you answer the question? Stalling is only going to give the professor's a chance to get here."

Black's laughter faded off. "The professor's that your friend behind the door is supposed to bring?" he asked. "You might as well join us, girl. I can smell your blood and hear your breathing from in hear."

 _'Oh great, he has the same senses in his human for as his animal form,'_ Gabriel grumbled. _'Freaking magic!'_

The door opened and Hermione darted inside the room, stopping once she was by Harry's side. "Sorry," she whispered to him. "I was hoping that if I was quiet enough, he wouldn't notice me. The books never said whether or not an animagus kept their animal senses in human form."

 _'Animagus? That's really what they call themselves?'_ Gabriel asked in disbelief.

'Hush,' Harry hissed. 'Not the time.'

"For someone who now has two wands pointed at him, you seem awfully sure of yourself." Harry commented as Hermione raised her own wand. Black likely had Ron's wand but they still had the advantage, especially seeing as Ron's wand likely wasn't going to work all that well for him. "So why don't you answer the question before we start firing spells at you. I'm sure the aurors would be happy to see you."

Black was looking at them with something that looked suspiciously like longing. "The rat," he said. "I wanted the rat."

"Scabbers?!" Ron squeaked at the man. "What do you want with Scabbers?!"

Harry frowned and looked at the squirming rat in Ron's hands, unable to escape the death grip Ron had on it. "Hermione, what's the average life span for a rat?"

"A year in the wild and about four years in captivity," Hermione told him.

"Ron, you said that Scabbers belonged to Percy first?" Harry asked, different scenarios running through his head rapidly.

"Yeah," Ron said shakily. "He's been in our family for twelve years-"

"Oh my god," Hermione whispered, swinging her wand around to point at the rat while Harry kept his trained on black.

Rats didn't have the presence of mind to go adventuring from a safe place into the unknown. They didn't live twelve years and they definitely didn't react when a wand was turned on them. Scabber's had stilled the moment he noticed Hermione's wand pointed at him. "Hermione?" Ron asked the frizzy haired girl.

"Ron, don't let go of that rat," Hermione snapped at him.

Scabbers being an animagus explained the odd behavior that the rat displayed but it didn't explain why Black had gone after him in the first place. Not unless…

"All they found was a finger," Harry muttered, eyes trained on the missing toe on Scabbers right paw. _'I knew there was more to that story than what Lupin knew!'_ Gabriel crowed. Something had felt off to them and now Harry knew why.

He turned his attention back to Black, who was gazing at them in stunned silence. "Peter Pettigrew?" he asked simply, gesturing towards the rat.

"H-how…?" Black stuttered, eyes wide and clearly rather thrown by what was going on in front of him.

"Nevermind that," Harry snapped. "Is that Peter Pettigrew?"

"Yes."

 _'And to think,'_ Gabriel groaned as the implications finally settled into their minds. _'It was such a nice few weeks, too.'_


	26. Chapter 26

Ron was the first one to react, surprisingly enough, looking at the rat in his hands with horror and disgust. After everything that they had gone through during their time at Hogwarts and everything that they had seen during their ill begotten adventures, it seemed that the redhead was easily able to accept the truth about the rat that had lived in his family for twelve years. Harry couldn't help but be proud of his friend for that fact. Just looking at the redhead's face, however, told him that Ron wasn't all that far from throwing the rat across the room to get it away from him. Harry and Gabriel didn't blame him and if anything, Harry wanted that little rat away from his best friend as much as Ron himself did if not more.  _'_ _Little bastard,'_  Gabriel snarled as they gazed a Pettigrew.

It seemed that they were both in agreement on what their thoughts of Pettigrew were. The little bastard had not only betrayed his parents and gotten them killed but he had put Ron in danger by hiding with the redhead's family. Harry had no doubt that the rat would have killed all the Weasley's in the Burrow as soon as he heard news of Voldemort returning. That was just the kind of person he pictured Pettigrew as being and Gabriel didn't protest against his thoughts, which only cemented his analysis in his head.

Hermione, however, seemed to be in a sort of shock. Her wand, trained on the no longer squirming rat, shook from the trembling in her hand. Harry had no doubt that the frizzy haired brunet was currently wishing that Crookshanks had managed to kill the rat during his numerous attempts. It also explained why such a well mannered cat was so determined to kill that one rat. Harry would have to pamper him when they got back to the castle.

Black seemed to choose that moment to come out of his stunned stupor. His own wand trained on the rat, Harry barely had enough time to cast a disarming spell at him before the man could curse the little bastard.

Black stared at his hand, his eyes quickly refocusing on the wand that now sat in Harry's left hand. Somewhat crazed black eyes shifted to his face before the man rasped. "Why?"

"That," Harry gestured to the rat in Ron's hands, "Does not deserve the luxury to be killed."

Betrayal still sat in heavily in Harry mind, his anger and Gabriel's anger merging into one and flaring their wings in a way that would cause anyone that could see the appendages to cower in fear. Harry had the memories of many different live and he had the memories of the emotions behind them, however here in this moment, Harry's anger was deeper and more dangerous than he could ever remember it being. Instead of being an observer, instead of having the luxury of being detached from the situation as a whole, they were smack dab in the middle of it and Harry could only just hold himself back from attacking the rat.

When he had learned that his parents had been betrayed, Harry had known that there was more to the story than what he was being told. Something about it had seemed wrong to him and Gabriel had concurred, so the anger he had felt had barely been noticeable. Now, that anger was there full force and he would be damned if Pettigrew had it easy. Sure, he would go to hell when he died and he would spend the rest of eternity being tortured but Harry wanted him to  _suffer_  before then.

Black was looking at him in interest now, the crazed look in his eye intensified and was joined with interest. Black's magic turned cold and menacing as the man focused on him. "What do you suggest?"

"We give him to the Dementors," Harry said, causing Ron to stiffen and Hermione to shoot a quick glance in his direction, her trembling stopping to be replaced with stunned disbelief. After his attack by those monsters, Harry had made it no secret that he absolutely hated the things.. The fact that he wanted to hand Pettigrew over to them spoke volumes of the anger he was currently feeling towards the rat and his friends knew that. "I'm sure the ministry will love to hand over the real murderer to them."

He was Harry Potter and while he hated the attention that he got from being the Boy-Who-Lived, he could use that fame to his advantage. The Ministry won't want to admit that they made a mistake with Black but Harry knew that if he demanded a trail for Pettigrew and also went public with the story, they would have no choice but to comply to stop the public backlash. If being in the presence of Dementors was hell for the innocent then Harry had no doubt that it would be even worse for someone who actually guilty.

Black nodded slowly, probably coming to the same conclusion as Harry had. While Harry had lost his parents and had been doomed to a life with the Dursley's by Pettigrew's actions, Black had lost twelve years of his life in the presence of Dementors, his best friends, his freedom, and his godson. In comparison, the betrayal Harry was feeling was probably nothing compared to the man that had actually been  _friends_  with the traitor.

And in that moment, it was decided.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore raced through the castle, moving faster than his old bones should have been forced to go for the second time in this school year. And once again, the reason centered around Harry Potter.

Prefect Percy Weasley had reported two hours ago that Harry, Ms. Granger, and Mr. Weasley had failed to show up for curfew and that no one remembered seeing either of the three since dinner. He had immediately started a search for them, alerting all of the staff to keep an eye out for them as he went to check at Hagrid's to see if they were there and had just lost track of time. It was not to be, for according to Hagrid, the three had left a half hour earlier for the castle.

The staff immediately went on red alert, Lupin leading the search for the missing Gryffindors in the Forbidden Forest while Minerva led the search in the castle. Then, only ten minutes ago, the trio had entered the Hospital wing. Ron Weasley was suffering from a broken leg and was clutching a rat between his hands. Hermione Granger and Harry himself were shaken but had no injuries.

While the youngest Weasley was tended by nurse, Harry and his female friend had explained what had happened to a frantic Minerva. According to them, they were attacked by a large black dog. The dog had gone straight for Mr. Weasley and had latched onto the redhead's leg and had pulled him into a tunnel at the base of the Whomping Willow. Harry and Ms. Granger had immediately followed suite and had located their friend in the Shrieking Shack only to discover that the dog was none other than Sirius Black.

That was where their story to an interesting turn, Albus thought as he shouted the password to the Gargoyle guarding the stairs to his office. Black didn't attack them at all, in fact when questioned, the man admitted to have been aiming for Mr. Weasley's pet  _rat_  of all things, claiming that the rat was in fact Peter Pettigrew.

According to Ms. Granger, in the time honored practice of 'humoring the crazy person', she had immediately turned her wand on the rat and had been shocked to find that 'Scabbers' actually  _reacted_  to her wand and stilled completely. Suspicious, Harry had managed to convince Black to allow them to turn 'Pettigrew' over to the Dementors and return to the castle.

That was when Albus had entered the room and was treated to Minerva casting the Animagus detection spell on the rat. It reacted positive and suddenly, Albus once again felt far too old. A quick reversal spell revealed that the rat was indeed Peter Pettigrew.

"Ministry of Magic Department of Magical Law Enforcement," he intoned gravely into the fire place, the floo powder quickly turning the fire green.

Amelia Bones greeted him on the other end. "Albus! What can I do for you?" she asked, smiling.

"I need yourself and a team of aurors to come through," he told her, not wasting anytime on pleasantries like he had in the past. This was no time to catch up. "Make sure to bring Veritaserum."

Amelia's posture immediately changed. "I'll be through in just a moment," she told him.

And it was just a moment. Albus had only just unlocked the floo network to allow them through when Amelia and two aurors stepped through, Veritaserum in hand. "Follow me," he told them and led them out of his office.

On the way to the Hospital Wing, Amelia began questioning him. "Just what is going on?"

"I'm afraid that a terrible mistake has been made," he told her before explaining exactly what had led to him calling her. As he told his tale, Amelia and her accompanying aurors turned more and more pale. By the time they reached the Hospital Wing where Pettigrew was being held, the Head of the DMLE was vibrating with fury.

A half hour later, Amelia Bones seemed to be exuding rage and Albus was feeling older than he had ever felt. Pettigrew, under Veritaserum, confessed to the killing of the muggles, the betrayal of the Potters, numerous other unsolved murders, the fact that he was a Death Eater and had been since graduating Hogwarts, and to the framing of Sirius Black. The severe miscarriage of justice that had revealed itself had Albus questioning everything he had believed in. Arresting Pettigrew as well as taking statements form himself, the trio of Gryffindors, and Minerva, Amelia and her aurors left.

Leaving Albus to wallow in his guilt for his own role in this injustice. "Albus?" the voice of Remus Lupin broke through his thoughts.

And, Albus reflected as he turned to look at the DADA professor, leaving him with the unfortunate task of breaking the news to the Potter's only other remaining friend.

* * *

**_Sirius Black Innocent!_ **

_By Rita Skeeter_

_Everyone knows the story of Sirius Black. Best friend and Secret Keeper to the Potters, Black betrayed them to You-Know-Who and before he was apprehended, killed thirteen muggles and Peter Pettigrew. Justice was severed swiftly and Black was sentenced to life in Azkaban Prison until he broke out during this summer._

_However in a twist the will shock you, my dear readers, to the core, Sirius Black was declared innocent by the Ministry of Magic just hours ago. What lead to such a declaration, you might wonder?_

_Last night at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Peter Pettigrew was discovered alive. Pettigrew, it seems, was a rat animagus and had been living with the Weasley family as their children's pet rat for the last twelve years. How was this discovered, you ask?_

_Sirius Black, it turns out, is a dog animagus. As young Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, and Ron Weasley returned to the castle after visiting the Grounds Keeper, Rubeus Hagrid, Sirius Black recognized Peter Pettigrew in Ron Weasley's hand. Attacking, Black grabbed and dragged Ron Weasley through a secret tunnel that connected to the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade Village. Chased by Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, Black admitted to having been after the rat, which was in fact Peter Pettigrew._

_Skeptical of what they were told, the three Gryffindors managed to convince Black to let them turn Pettigrew in. Once back at the castle, the teachers were horrified to discover that Black had been telling the truth. Alerting the aurors, Pettigrew was interrogated under Veritaserum by the Head of the DMLE Amelia Bones._

_Pettigrew confessed to not only betraying the Potters, killing the thirteen muggles and framing Sirius Black but of the murders of Madame Lu Sung (pureblood, died 1979), eighteen unsolved muggle killings, the death of Gideon and Fabian Prewitt, Amy Rose (muggleborn, died 1978), Louise Rosier (pureblood, died 1977) and Terance Smith (muggleborn, died 1978). Pettigrew was sentence to life in Azkaban Prison, the maximum security ward in the emergency Wizengamot meeting that was called at 9:00 am this morning and has already been delivered to his new cell within the prison._

_That is not all, my dear readers. The tragedy of this case only gets worse. Minister Fudge, shocked by the miscarriage of justice Sirius Black received, immediately went to investigate how this could have possibly happened. Needless to say the Minister was horrified to discover that Black was never given a trial! During the chaos that descended after the war, Black's case was pushed back until it was forgotten about, allowing Black to suffer twelve years in Azkaban when he was, in fact, innocent._

_The head of the DMLE at the time, Bartemius Crouch, has been called into questioning to see how many other cases might have possibly been mismanaged during the after war chaos. Crouch was unavailable for comments._

_Yet why is it only now that this is coming to light? Why is it that Sirius Black only now decided to break out of Azkaban? The answer will shock you all._

_You might remember the article this summer that feature the entire Weasley family after they were fortunate enough to win the Wizarding Lottery. One the same day, Minister Fudge was reading the paper during his routine check of Azkaban. When he passed the cell of Sirius Black, Black requested that he be allowed to read the paper. The Minister allowed it and in what must be the most bizarre coincidence in the history of our world, Black recognized Pettigrew in his animagus form where he was perched on the shoulder of the youngest Weasley child. Black, immediately realizing that Pettigrew, a Death Eater, was in Hogwarts with no one aware of it, broke out of Azkaban a few days later. It is because of Sirius Black's heroic actions that Peter Pettigrew as discovered and apprehended and this reporter can only thank the man with all her heart._

_What of the Weasley's, who unknowingly harbored a Death Eater for the past twelve years? This reporter tired to gain an interview with Arthur and Molly Weasley however the Weasley matriarch began hysterically crying before I could gain any information. Arthur Weasley only had this to say: "We had no idea. One day twelve years ago, my son Percy found an injured rat in our garden and asked to keep. We saw no harm in it and eventually, Percy passed the rat on to Ron. To think that we've had a Death Eater living under our roof with our children…" Arthur Weasley proceeded to break down. This reporter can only express her sympathies to the family, who are shaken. Molly Weasley was eventually given calming potion and was escorted home by her husband._

_Sirius Black is asked to turn himself in to St. Mungos for medical treatment as well as to be formally cleared of all charges and to be rewarded monetary reimbursement. The Daily Prophet would like to wish Black well and congratulates him on his freedom._

_For more on Sirius Black, see page 4_

_For more on the Fidelius Charm, see page 9_

_For more on Peter Pettigrew, see page 12_


	27. Chapter 27

The fallout that the article posted in the Daily Prophet had amongst the students and staff of Hogwarts was astronomical. If Harry had thought that the awe-filled stares directed his way from the other students was bad in the past, now that it was well known that he'd come into contact with Sirius Black and had managed to not only clear the man of all charges but help capture the real murderer and Death Eater… Well, needless to say Harry was back in the spotlight of the school and this time Ron and Hermione were there with him.

At first, his two friends seemed to be rather flattered by the attention. However as the staring and whispering of the students continued, Harry was rather amused to watch both of them start to get uncomfortable with the always present gazes and the whispering going on no stop. Ron was beginning to develop a tick in his right eye and Hermione was opening glaring at the gossiping students. Harry knew that he shouldn't really be amused by this and he knew that his friends were finding out in the worst way possible how much fame really sucked but Harry couldn't help it.

During his first year, before he had discovered the Tree or even began interacting with Gabriel, neither of his friends had really understood why he was so uncomfortable with fame. Last year hadn't really given them any opportunities to learn exactly where Harry was coming from either. So to finally have them understand why he hated being famous so much was liberating. And Harry felt terrible for feeling that way.

 _'_ _At least if they find out now they're less likely to find out in a worse situation than this. Better to find out when the attention is positive instead of negative.'_  Gabriel pointed out. Harry grimaced, there was real merit to Gabriel's words yet Harry couldn't help but feel horrible for feeling as he did anyways. For all that he had the memories of countless lives and for all that he had the mental maturity of at least a young adult, Harry was still thirteen and so were Ron and Hermione. And unlike Harry, his friends had never really been on the receiving end of so much attention. Even when they had lost all those points in first year, Harry was the one that dealt with the worst of the attention. Hermione was barely ridiculed at all and Neville only received a little ribbing here and there. As they had basically isolated themselves, Harry had been forced to face the anger of the entire school by himself. Even before that, Ron and Hermione had only ever seen Harry dealing with the schools attention from the sidelines. Now they were right in the center of it and Harry could see them slowly cracking under the pressure.

Hermione and Ron weren't the only ones on the receiving end of school's attention. Percy and the Twins were also the focus of the gossip as Percy had been the one to originally find and  _nurse_  the injured Pettigrew in the first place. The redheaded Prefect was walking around in a permanent state of horror and disgust while the Twins were gleefully sharing tales of the pranks that they'd used Pettigrew in when they were younger that had no doubt traumatized the little bastard. Harry wasn't the only one who noticed how much vindictive pleasure that Percy seemed to take out of those memories, it seemed as the Twins made sure to recount them whenever they noticed their older brother was near.

In the weeks following the article, Sirius presented himself to St. Mungos for treatment and had been rewarded 13,000 galleons in reimbursement for his wrongful imprisonment. The Ministry had even declared that no penalty for being an unregistered animagus would be enforced as it  _was_  a war and Sirius had been immediately imprisoned before the war was officially over. Sirius had even gotten away with claiming that he had been planning to register as soon as it was safe to, although Harry doubted that was really the case. Everyone knew that only idiots willingly registered their forms with the Ministry. No offense to his Transfiguration professor, Harry thought with a grimace as he remembered that the woman was a registered animagus.

Everything seemed to be coming together perfectly however something was nagging at the back of his head and Harry couldn't help but wonder what was bothering him. Logically, everything should be fine. Ron's leg was healed, Hermione was unscathed, and Harry had managed to have nearly a full year where he hadn't ended it battling Voldemort. He had discovered a new friendship in Luna Lovegood and he could even hover about five feet off the ground with his wings now!

So why was it that was causing Harry to feel like something foreboding was about to happen?

* * *

He received his answer two weeks before the school year ended in the form of the Daily Prophet's front page.

**_PETER PETTIGREW ESCAPES FROM AUROR CUSTODY_ **

**_ON THE WAY TO AZKABAN!_ **

_By Rita Skeeter_

_As Auror teams escorted Peter Pettigrew back to Azkaban after being removed for further questioning on the years that Pettigrew spent free, Pettigrew was able to escape his bonds and flee from aurors. Auror Kingsley Shaklebolt, the leader of the task force created to track Pettigrew down, had this to say:_

_"_ _Peter Pettigrew is a fugitive of the law. We do not currently know how Pettigrew managed to break his bonds without a wand, however a full investigation into the aurors escorting him to Azkaban is underway and they have suspended from duty during the investigation._

_The Department of Magical Law Enforcement would like to ask the public to remain calm. A Floo tip line has been established and we urge you to contact us with any information on Pettigrew that may help lead to his re-capture. Pettigrew is a dangerous killer and we urge you not to approach him in anyway."_

_How was it that Pettigrew managed to escape from his four auror escort is unknown. This-_

Harry stopped reading, closing his eyes in as a headache threatened to become a migraine. 'Just great,' he groaned silently.

 _'_ _How do you_ lose _a known mass murdering Death Eater, especially when everyone and their cat knows he's an animagus?!'_  Gabriel practically shouted in their mind.  _'Not only that but how do you get outsmarted by a man who's spent twelve years as a rat?!'_

'I don't even know,' Harry groaned as his head gave a particularly pain throb.

"Hey, isn't that Hedwig?" Ron asked, deliberately distracting Harry from the Daily Prophet and redirecting his attention elsewhere. It was rather obvious what the redhead was doing but Harry appreciated the effort all the same. He knew that Pettigrew's escape was likely affecting the Weasley's even worse than it was affecting Harry. Even Hermione looked a little upset at the article.

Turning his attention to Hedwig, who was indeed heading his way, Harry frowned when he noticed a letter attached to her leg. He couldn't recall sending anyone any mail recently and couldn't figure out where Hedwig would have gotten that letter from. Gabriel radiated the same confusion as him.

"Where did you get that, girl?" He asked the snowy owl as she landed. Hedwig gave a rather smug bark in response, helping herself to some of Harry's bacon from his plate. Shaking his head in fondness, Harry untied the letter and opened it.

_Dear Harry,_

_I don't really know how to start this letter off. Remus says that I should introduce myself first, so here it is: My name is Sirius Black and I'm your godfather._

_I don't know if you knew that or not. The last time we met, you didn't give any inclination as to where or not you did. Actually, the last time we met, I was having too much trouble trying to figure out what was happening to really pay attention to what you may or may not have known. You and your friends are amazing, did you know that? I don't think most third years would have reacted in any way similar to how you and your friends did, truthfully. Speaking of your friends, how's the redhead, Ron was his name? I really didn't mean to grab his leg like that but twelve years around Dementors really shot my motor skills and aiming more than I thought._

_I'm currently at St. Mungos receiving treatment, as the Daily Prophet has no doubt let the entire country know by now. Nosy reporters. I have to say, I was surprised when the Ministry let me off on the unregistered animagus charge, not to mention receiving 13,000 galleons from them. 1000 galleons for every year of wrongful imprisonment and an extra 1000 galleons for the lack of trial, the whole stomping on my rights, and a few other reasons that I can't be bothered to remember. Truthfully, I can't say that I'm all that impressed with the Ministry at the moment._

_Enough of my babbling, as I doubt you really care what my views of the Ministry currently are._

Harry snorted, amused.  _'I don't know, listening to him rant about the Ministry might be fun,'_  Gabriel mused.

_So I'll get to the point of this letter: As your godfather, your parents' will states that I'm am to receive full custody of you should anything happen to you. Now, I wasn't originally going to fight for custody as I was sure that you were happy where you were until I got a rather disturbing letter from Headmaster Dumbledore a few days ago, asking that I take full custody of you when I'm able._

Harry started, surprised. 'What?'

He could practically feel Gabriel thinking (which was still weird despite the fact that he was rather used to it).  _'If I'm remembering the Hogwarts charter correctly from when we were Ian,'_  Gabriel began.  _'If a student is severely injured and remains unconscious for my then two days, the family of that student receives a formal visit to be informed of their students health.'_

Harry couldn't help it. He snorted. The very idea of the Dursley's receiving a home visit by one of his teachers (likely the Headmaster if Harry was right) was hilarious. He could just imagine the looks on their faces when they realized there was a 'freak' on their doorstep. However, it would also be rather revealing to whoever visited them that they were not proper guardians. Harry couldn't help but wonder why the Headmaster hadn't spoken to him about it already.

 _I have to say, when he told me that you had been living with Petunia, I had a fit. The Healers had to force a calming potion down my throat. I've met your aunt and her horrid husband at your parent's wedding and the filth about magic and Lily that came from their mouths…Well, I honestly considered cursing the Headmaster for even considering placing you with them, let alone_ leaving _you there! I don't know what he was thinking but their treatment of you that he alluded to in his letter didn't really surprise me._

_He told me that he originally had planned to give custody of you to the Weasley's, however since it's now public knowledge that Pettigrew was hiding out in their home, he thinks that any attempt to assign custody of you to them would be contested and you may end up in an even worse situation that you currently have been. Not to mention your grandmother, Dorea Potter, was born Dorea Black and therefore give the Malfoy's a blood relation to you through Narcissa Malfoy nee Black, you second cousin. As I have seen how intelligent you are, I have no doubt that you know what would happen if they contested the Weasley's custody of you with blood relation on their side._

'Yeah, not happening.' Harry thought with a shudder. He so did not want to end up living with Draco Malfoy of all people. The fact that he actually had a blood relation to that little git…  _'Ewww,'_  Gabriel interrupted. Harry had to agree with him. Eww, indeed.

_However I'm equally as related to you as Narcissa, not to mention that I was your father's best friend and named your godfather. I filled out the paperwork that the Headmaster sent with his letter and I was granted custody of you two days ago._

_I was originally going to send a letter to you after the paperwork was filed, however as you are the Boy-Who-Lived, the Ministry decided that a full investigation into me was needed. No doubt some unsavory officials were trying to deny me custody of you. During this investigation I was legally not allowed to contact you in any shape or form. So sorry about the late notice of all this as I doubt that the Headmaster informed you of any of this. No doubt he thinks that you're to 'young' to be burdened with such knowledge._

'For someone who fought on the same side as the Headmaster in the last war, he doesn't seem to think all that highly of him,' Harry commented absently.

 _'_ _You know, you're right.'_  Gabriel responded after a moment.  _'That is weird. Something obviously happened between the two of them to cause that amount of scorn, especially since he seems to be trying to hide it from us.'_

Harry studied the last few lines of that paragraph again, frowning. Gabriel was right, Sirius tone was one that could be taken as fond exasperation instead of scorn. If it wasn't for the slight difference in handwriting, more rushed and indenting the parchment deeper than the sentences before it, Harry wouldn't have even caught the underlining scorn in the words.

_The Ministry seems to have finally decided that I'm healthy enough and sane enough to have full custody of you. No doubt they'll be mourning their defeat for weeks to come, assholes that they are._

Harry couldn't help laugh at that, bringing Hermione and Ron's attention to him immediately. He just shook his head at their questioning gazes, motioning with his hands that he'd tell them later.

_I'm currently renting staying at my old childhood home as I look for a house. As you're going to be living there with me as well, I thought that I would hold off on making any final decisions until you can have a look at them as well. You'll be pleased to hear that until we buy a house, I've asked Molly Weasley if it would be alright if you stayed at the Burrow, so you'll be leaving the Platform with them when school gets out. I figure that would give some time to get to really know each other in there. No doubt you've changed a lot since you were a baby._

_Sincerely,_

_Sirius Black_

_P.S.- This snowy white owl showed up and started demanding that I give her the letter. Started pecking me when I tried to refuse. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?_

Harry looked up from the letter and raised an eyebrow at Hedwig. The still smug owl just bark at him before finishing off his bacon and taking flight. Shaking his head, he turned his attention onto his curious friends and began filling them in on what he had learned.

* * *

Exams passed quietly, something that Harry couldn't help but be thankful for. He wasn't sure if he could handle any more drama this year. Havoc and Tinker returned to spending most of their time in his pockets and Ruth began to nest in Harry's trunk, the three of them seemingly realizing that they would be leaving the castle soon.

Harry began sending letters back and forth with Sirius every, getting to know the man that he would be living with from now on. He couldn't say that he was all that sad to know that he would never be seeing the Dursley's ever again and he  _was_  rather pleased that he would be spending the beginning of the summer with the Weasley's. Percy, the Twins, and Ron seemed just as pleased as he was, though Hermione seemed a little disappointed that she wouldn't be able to visit with them. Her parents had written and told her that they would be spending the beginning of the summer in Greece and that they wouldn't be back until early August.

For once, Harry wasn't dreading the end of the school year and he couldn't help but marvel at the feeling.

Gabriel was more apprehensive, however. They had never had to worry about an adult during their summers before and it would harder and harder to practice their swordsmanship or flying if they ended up living in the middle of London. Harry didn't let this get to him, as Sirius had been adamant during their letters that he wanted Harry's opinion before he settled on a place. In his more recent letters, he had been alluding to having found a house he thought Harry would love. Harry was honestly curious to see this house and even Gabriel found himself intrigued.

The weeks since he had begun exchanging letters with Sirius had been rather eye opening for Harry. For the first time since he had started regaining his memories in second year, Harry actually felt like he was thirteen. He would never have to see his childhood tormentors again, he was getting a new home and he was regaining the family he had lost when he was only a year old. Professor Lupin, who now insisted that Harry call him Remus, had easily worked his way back into Harry's life long before Sirius was proven innocent. The man had been taking time out of his own schedule to help Harry and his friends master the Patronus Charm and though they had yet to fully master the charm, Remus had been patient with them.

Harry was actually rather frustrated with his lack of progress on the charm. No matter how hard he tried, Harry couldn't seem to get the charm past a strong mist of light. It was frustrating and Remus kept frowning at the mist. According to the professor, Harry should have at least gotten an incorporeal animal by now, as the mist he was getting seemed to be getting more and more solid every time he preformed the spell. The only upside was that he was able to keep his Grace from affecting the spell again.

Hermione and Ron hadn't managed to get anything beyond the mist they'd been producing in the beginning and Harry could practically see the frustration in their eyes as well. Remus seemed impressed with their progress, however, so none of the three mentioned their frustration to the man.

Harry was also rather disappointed to learn that Remus wouldn't be returning for the next year. According to the man, he didn't want to push his luck with the curse and Harry honestly couldn't blame him. Quirrell had come to a horrible end and Lockhart's reputation was completely ruined after he had fled from the post the year before. Harry had no doubt that if Remus tried to return the next year, an unfortunate fate would find him and he rather suspected that it would involved his status as a werewolf.

So Harry resigned himself to dealing with yet another new professor the next year. The whole school had been sad to see the man go (sans Snape, but the Potion's Professor didn't count).

"Come on Harry, the train's about to leave!" Hermione scolded him as she dragged him by the arm to the train entrance. Harry shook himself from his thoughts, grinning as he boarded the Hogwarts Express. He didn't look back.

* * *

"Well, well," a gaunt man said, watching the students hurry to board a large steam train. His eyes were focused on two full grown wings attacked to the back of a black haired boy. "This gets more interesting as time goes on. I wonder if this is what You had planned?"

He had been keeping a close eye on the progress of events ever since he had first discovered the humanized archangel. He had found himself impressed and intrigued by events ever since then. When he had first set eyes of the boy that the Archangel Gabriel had become, he had not known what to expect. Ever since then, he had found himself enraptured by what was unfolding before him.

It was unlike anything he had ever seen before or anything he expected to ever see again. Soul and Grace had never merged in such a way before. He could see them slowly becoming one inside the fragile human body and the wings that were folded gracefully behind the archangel's back were a testament to how far along that the merging was. Everything about the situation screamed that the Archangel should have found himself back within a tree, yet somehow that wasn't the case. Death couldn't help but marvel at His latest scheme and the ingenuity of the youngest Archangel.

Gabriel had always been a crafty one and his stint as Loki had proved amusing for the Horseman to watch. His Reapers had even begun telling tales of Gabriel's exploits and the strange deaths that he caused. When the youngest Archangel had been felled by Lucifer, Death had thought the story would end there only to find himself gazing at the Archangel once again when a shock wave had rocked the universes.

Those in Heaven seemed unaware of Gabriel's resurrection and that was what had originally intrigued him enough to seek out the Archangel. And he found that he was increasingly glad that he did. While the Winchester's had been a temporary amusement with their antics, Gabriel's situation was far more entertaining than those humans would ever be.

The adventures that Gabriel had been on since he had begun pulling himself together, while amusing and entertaining, baffled the Horseman. The Archangel had nearly found himself dead once more many times during the last two years and Death had yet to see the purpose behind them or what He intended by putting His archangel through this. And Death knew that He had to have a plan for what other reason would Gabriel have been reborn as Harry Potter? The boy that was prophesized to defeat the current human called Tom Riddle?

Even now he was unsure as to what was going on so Death resigned himself to watching and waiting.

At least he wouldn't be bored.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right so this didn't take long at all. In fact, I was actually surprised how fast this chapter got done. I was actually planning on working on one of my other stories but the plunny for this demanded it be written. I doubt any of you are complaining.
> 
> So third year is over! Harry's going to be living with Sirius and not the Weasley's (I bet none of you saw that coming!) and Death has made another appearance. I was a bit iffy on whether or not to include him in this chapter but he just demanded that he be included so...yeah. Gabriel's being stalked by Death. Which is a bit creepy if you really think about it.
> 
> Also, Heaven doesn't know that Gabriel's alive which was why Death originally appeared in the first few chapters (I don't remember which one). I know some of you were wondering about that. I hope you're satisfied with the answer!
> 
> I don't think there's anything that really needs to be addressed in this chapter. There might be some wondering what's up between Sirius and Dumbledore but that will be explained in the next chapter.
> 
> You're all amazing! I was not expecting such positive reactions to the last chapter, honestly.
> 
> So this story has reached 286 reviews, 731 favorites, and 823 followers and has been added to 31 communities. Just wow. I don't think that any of my stories has been this well received so quickly. It hasn't even been a year yet! O.o I can't even begin to tell you how mind-blowing that is to me. This is already the longest story I have ever written at over 90,000 words (I'm too lazy to see exactly how much it'll be after I post this). This is freakin' novel length! I don't think I've ever written a story this long in my life! O.O
> 
> I love you all! As always, feel free as ask about anything that you didn't understand and I'll do my best to answer!
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	28. Chapter 28

The Burrow was just like Harry remembered it. The oddly made house flashed all different colors, reaching out in welcome as each one of them made to enter the house. The house glowed even brighter as another person walked through the door and Harry couldn't help but watch in wonder. It would never be boring, watching magic at work, Harry thought happily as he joined the others inside the house.

To say that he was rather surprised to see Sirius Black sitting at the table waiting for him was an understatement. The last time he had seen the man, Sirius had looked gaunt, a beard and wild hair hiding his facial features, and his eyes glowed with a crazed gleam. Even though the man had sounded much saner in their letters, Harry hadn't been able to separate the man he'd met with the one he was exchanging letters with.

This Sirius Black was clean shaven and his eyes held laughter and warmth with an accompanying darkness, the crazed gleam nowhere in sight. He had filled out quite a bit as well, his face no longer gaunt though still not as round as he knew it should have been. In all, Harry was looking at an entirely different man than he had met in the Shrieking Shack.  _'That is an impressive improvement,'_  Gabriel commented absently, likely studying the man just as much as Harry was.

"Harry!" Sirius greeted with a wide grin, his eyes shining with excitement and hope. Harry couldn't help the answering grin that spread across his own face.

"It's nice to see you again, Sirius," Harry greeted the man, only to find himself wrapped in a hug only moments later. He could see Mrs. Weasely watching them from the doorway with a bright smile as Harry hugged the man back. The approval in her eyes warmed his chest and for once, Harry felt that everything was going perfectly in his life.

Sirius released him and studied his face with curious eyes. "I have to say, you look more and more like your parents every time I see you."

Harry started, looking at the man with questioning eyes. "I was always told that I took after my dad more than my mum," he told the man, tilting his head slightly in confusion.

Sirius laughed. "They likely didn't know your parents as well as me," Sirius said with a shake of his head. "I admit that you resemble James when he was a child but the older you get, the more of Lily I see in you. Not just her eyes, either. You've got her cheek bones and her coloring as well."

Harry didn't know what to say to that. Ever since he'd first returned to the Wizarding World when he was eleven, he'd been told that he looked just like his father with his mother's eyes. If what Sirius said was true, Harry looked more like his mother than he'd been told. He'd always thought that he could see a bit of this mother in him, comparing his face to his father's and hers in the pictures he had of them. This was the first time someone had agreed with his assessment though and Harry felt a large smile spread across his face.

And that was how the summer of his fourth year started.

* * *

They spent hours talking before Harry was forced to give in to his bodies demands and get some sleep.

Harry woke up early the next day, excited to spend the day with his godfather looking for houses. Mrs. Weasley was already making breakfast as Harry made his way to the downstairs bathroom. In the time he'd spent at the Burrow, Harry had been quick to learn that the upstairs bathroom tended to be the more likely target of the twins verses the downstairs bathroom. He was still waiting for Ron to come to the same conclusion until then, Harry had no problem watching his redheaded best friend fall for yet another prank the Twins had set up in the upstairs bathroom for the poor fool who was brave enough to use it next.

"Good morning, dear!" Mrs. Weasley called from the kitchen.

"Good morning, Mrs. Weasley!" Harry called back before closing the bathroom door. It took him less than ten minutes to get dressed and brush his teeth. He wanted to be ready for when Sirius would come to pick him up.

Elated didn't even describe how currently he felt. Even with memories of countless lives where he had a family that loved him, those were only memories and they weren't nearly as powerful as the memory of growing up with the Dursley's was. Harry couldn't distance himself as easily from his current life's childhood memories like he could the memories of his other lives.

With the Weasley's, Harry had found a family for himself. Ever since that first Christmas, he had kept in contact with the two oldest Weasley children and had received a few letters from Mrs. Weasley and after he had saved Ginny…well, he wasn't all that surprised that they had wanted him to live with them full time. They were his family in every way that mattered, just like Hope and her foals were, not to mention Hagrid. He couldn't forget Buckbeak, Ruth, Havoc or Tinker, either. He'd gone from a lonely orphan to having a large extended family and now he had the chance to add a part of his original family (well, from this lifetime, at least) onto that list as well. Harry was beyond elated.

And so was Gabriel. It seemed that no matter what life he was living, Harry had always had an extensive family. His memories from his time as an angel were still vastly incomplete (he hadn't even reached the creation of anything besides Heaven yet) but from what he knew about angels, there were a lot of them. An army of them, to be exact. Harry was often intimidated by the amount of siblings he would eventually remember, siblings that he would likely be meeting again in the near future once he was complete again. Gabriel was oddly silent on the matter of their angel siblings, however.

His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice coming from the kitchen, chatting with Mrs. Weasley.

"Hello Sirius!" Harry called as he exited the bathroom.

"You're up early," Sirius said in surprise, greeting him with a large grin. Gray eyes flickered to his hair. "I see that your hair is just as unruly as your father's was."

Harry grimaced. His hair had never been tamable and it tended to look like he had crawled out of bed no matter how many times he brushed it. He'd given up on it entirely and only bothered brushing the black locks to keep them from knotting together. Other than that, he left it as it was. Even Mrs. Weasley didn't comment on the state of his hair anymore after a few attempts to tame it that somehow ended up with a broken brush and even more knots in his hair than what he'd started with.

Sirius laughed at the look on both Harry's and Mrs. Weasley's faces, likely guessing exactly what had happened. "That bad, huh?"

Harry nodded, his hands unconsciously moving to pat down his unruly hair. "I've never been able to tame it and it never seems to grow more than this," he told his godfather with a sigh. "Aunt Petunia tried cutting it herself once and it grew back to the way it was the next morning."

"Not surprising," Sirius told him, grinning. "James and Charlus had the exact same problem. It drove Dorea and Lily bonkers trying to tame it and even house-elf magic had no effect on their hair. I would be shocked if you managed to do more than run a brush through it."

Harry nodded gloomily. His hair was always been a sore point for him, especially after all of those horrible trips to the barber and his aunt's attempts to tame it herself. It was one of the few things that were unique to this life and only this life. While he had been an orphan in more than one life, this was the only life where his parents had been brutally murder by a megalomaniac that wanted to rule the world and commit mass genocide. A fact that he was very much grateful for; dealing with Voldemort in this life was bad enough.

 _'Not to mention that we've never had to fight a basilisk with a sword before, nor have we been attacked by a swarm of soul-eating monsters trying to kill us. And we definitely have never discovered that an escaped convict was our godfather and that he was really innocent and the real murderer was living as our best friend's pet rat,'_ Gabriel added helpfully.  _'Not to mention the whole piece of Voldemort's soul attacking our school fiasco that lead up to the basilisk incident.'_

'Thank you for pointing out everything that has gone wrong for us during our school years thus far.' Harry grumbled, annoyed. He didn't need reminding of everything that he'd been dealing with for the past two years. And that was without discovering that he was a humanized Archangel of the Lord and that his memories of that time had been given consciousness. Gabriel didn't comment anymore, seemingly pleased with himself for some reason. Harry wasn't sure what that reason was and decided he was likely better off not knowing.

He was usually better off not knowing.

"Ready to go then?" Sirius asked. Harry didn't have to think about it, nodding enthusiastically.

"Not without breakfast you don't!" Mrs. Weasley interrupted, giving both Harry and Sirius a glance over. "You're both thin as twigs! Now sit down and eat!"

Two plates filled with sausages and eggs appeared in front of them. Sirius gave the plate a bewildered glance before turning to look at the redheaded matron. Seeing her stern expression, his godfather promptly decided that arguing wasn't worth it.

Harry fought back his laughter as he too dug into the plate of food in front of him.

This was already looking to be a wonderful day.

* * *

The first house they visited was, well, a dump. It was a townhouse in the middle of London and dirt and grime covered the walls. It also seemed to be furnished however Harry wasn't sure that he wanted to know what that umbrella stand was made of.

That was when the screaming started. Loud, horrible screeches came from the wall just inside the doorway and Harry found himself having to dismiss the blade he had instinctively called on during the tirade of what appeared to be a Wizard's Portrait. Sirius was screaming back at the thing and Harry had a horrible feeling that this wasn't one of the houses they were looking at to buy. Judging from the appearance of a rather unpleasant looking house-elf, Harry's theory was likely correct.

"Just shut up for one second you old hag!" Sirius finally roared, stunning the portrait into silence. The rather ugly looking woman looked stunned. "That's better." Sirius said with a relieved sigh. "Harry, welcome to Number 12 Grimmauld Place, one of the ancestral homes of the House of Black. The place where I've been staying for the time being."

 _'More like ancestral dump,'_  Gabriel commented.  _'I'm pretty sure that wallpaper shouldn't move like that. Yeesh, he's been living here?'_

Harry jerked away from the wall on his left, where small little bumps moved under the paper there. He turned a skeptical eye towards his godfather, motioning to the obviously bug infected paper. Sirius grimaced.

"Don't worry, we won't be living here," the man reassured him. "I'm just here to pick up a few things and I'll be checking on the property periodically after we move. It's part of my duties now that I'm the new Lord Black."

Oh, yeah. Harry had forgotten about that. Sirius had never really mentioned it before so the newspaper article announcing him as the new Black Lord had pretty much disappeared from his mind. Harry had to admit that he didn't envy his godfather for having to deal with this place on a regular basis. He wasn't sure why the elf, who was rather obviously alive as he was glaring holes into his godfather, had let the place get as bad as it was.

Sirius seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "Kreacher!" Sirius snapped at the house-elf who glared right back.

 _'I'm sensing a not to pleasant history there,'_  Gabriel mused as they watched the mutual hatred radiate from the two.  _'Best to not get involved.'_

'No kidding,' Harry thought back, grimacing as the glaring contest waged on far longer than what was likely appropriate. He coughed politely.

Sirius jerked at the sound before flushing in embarrassment. "Why is it that you've yet to clean this place up?"

"Is only Kreacher now, Master," the house-elf sneered. And really, that did explain a lot. There was no way that one house-elf would be able to do everything, no matter the expectations most wizards put on them.

Sirius sighed as well, looking around in disgust. "Go see what can be salvaged besides what I've already packed. Pack up all the artifacts you can and I'll go store them in the Black Vault. No doubt some of them are the cause for the lack of other house-elves."

 _'Yikes,'_  Gabriel whistled.  _'Those have got to be some really dark and powerful artifacts then. I wouldn't want those just lying around either.'_

'Why not just destroy them?' Harry asked, frowning. His past lives in the Wizarding World hadn't given him all that much information on dark artifacts. Spells, yes. Rituals, unfortunately. Artifacts? For some reason, he'd had no experience with even one.

 _'Dark Artifacts, and sometimes even Neutral Artifacts, that are powerful enough to kill tend to be near impossible to destroy for ordinary magic users, human or not. It would take a lot of experience in curse breaking, knowledge of enchantments that likely are mostly lost in time, and a good amount of power to destroy one without risking permanent harm to oneself.'_ Gabriel explained easily.  _'I doubt that the rules for this world are that much different. Storing them in a vault and hiding them away from the world is much safer for everyone all around.'_

That made quite a bit of sense, Harry conceded.

"I suppose I should look into filling the gaps left by those elves' deaths." Sirius said with a sigh. "That's going to take some time."

Yes it was, if the house-elf trade was anything like it had been during Harry's fourth life (in proper order, not in the order he'd remembered them) in this world. House-elves were highly sought after creatures and it was rare that a free elf stuck around long enough to be bought instead of just heading straight to Hogwarts. Most elves bound to a family were descendants of the original house-elves that had bound to the family.

Harry paused, an idea forming in his head. "Hey Sirius? Where's the bathroom?"

After getting a rather detailed reply-  _'Past the shrunken elf heads?!'_ – Harry quickly headed for the secluded room as quickly as he could, making sure that Sirius didn't follow him. Passing the Shrunken Head wall, which disturbed them beyond belief, Harry ducked into the bathroom. "Dobby," he whispered, hoping the elf would answer.

The elf quickly appeared in front of him, eyes wide with surprised tears. His hands were bandaged and Harry could make out dried blood on his tunic-sack that looked fresher than he was comfortable with. "Harry Potter sir call for Dobby?" the elf asked in awe.

"I did," Harry said with a nod, keeping his voice gentle. "My godfather's looking for new house-elves and I was hoping your master might be willing to make a deal."

Hope was a powerful emotion and seeing it bloom within oversized eyes made Harry want to kill whoever it was that owned the elf. This was even worse than he remembered it being and it made angry that he'd not been able to do anything before now. "Harry Potter sir means it? He wants Dobby to works for hims godfather?"

"I wouldn't want any other elf," Harry told him seriously. Dobby had been instrumental in helping him deal with the Chamber of Secrets in their second year, going so far as to warn him even though it might likely mean death for the elf if he was found out. "Now, this is what we're going to do…"

* * *

Sirius frowned, watching his godson's retreating back as Harry made his way to the bathroom. Something told him that Harry hadn't really needed to use it.

His godson was different from what he remembered and though he could see both Lily and James in him, there was also something…otherworldly about him. In the way his eyes shined with power and age, so much older than even Sirius' own eyes looked. He'd thought that it was just the after affects of Azkaban, when he'd first met Harry in the Shrieking Shack but it was still there. Harry moved with a grace that most adults couldn't pull off and energy seemed to swirl around him, leaving a taste of lightning in the air.

Ever since he was a child, Sirius had been able to sense things that others couldn't. It was a rare ability passed down in the Black family, the only thing that had ever put pride into the eyes of his parents, and it had only gotten stronger during his years in Azkaban. He wasn't sure if it was the power of the Dementors that strengthened it or if it was his long weeks in the form of a grim that had done it. All he knew was that looking at his godson he could tell that there was more to the boy than Harry was letting on.

Sometimes, if stared hard enough, he could even seen the outline of wings behind Harry's back. It was unnerving to say the least.

The Potter family had very few creatures in their line and none closer than ten generations back. Lily was a muggleborn, so there was no way that he could have gotten it from her, either. He'd looked into it when he'd been in Saint Mungos recovering, tearing through every book that he'd had Remus bring him.

The werewolf had been bewildered when he'd told him his suspicions the night before, finally willing to admit that this wasn't just a hallucination or his imagination.

To say that he'd been shocked when Remus had admitted to sensing similar things was perhaps inaccurate. In fact, he'd been counting on the werewolf's senses to confirm his own when he'd fire-called him the man.

So now he was stuck trying to figure out exactly how to broach the subject with his godson. Unlike when they had first confronted Remus on his status as a werewolf, Sirius was unsure of how to proceed with this. They had  _known_  what Remus was for a good year before they'd confronted him but he didn't even have any clue to what Harry was.

He didn't know but he'd figure it out.

"Hey Sirius?" Harry's voice broke the silence he'd let fall between him and Kreacher.

"Yeah?" He asked easily, looking to his godson's rather nervous form. It was the first time he'd ever seen the boy even slightly nervous. 'A suspected mass murderer has him and his friends cornered in a room alone and he doesn't break a sweat,' Sirius thought in bewilderment. 'But asking me a question has him toeing the floor like a naughty child?'

"About that house-elf situation…"

As Harry explained his idea, Sirius felt his smile growing wider and wider. This was definitely something he could get behind! Focusing on what his godson was saying, Sirius let all thoughts of confronting the boy slip out of his mind.

He could always figure it out later.


	29. Chapter 29

As much as it pained Harry to admit, getting Dobby away from his master would take much longer than just a day and Harry would have little to do with the actual work behind it. Sirius would be the one to reach out to the Malfoy's and negotiate. Harry had known that since Dobby had told him who his family was. As the Boy-Who-Lived, any reaching out to that family would incite alarms, especially with his on-going feud, if it could be called that, with Draco. Getting Dobby away from them was out of his abilities alone.

Sirius, on the other hand, wouldn't cause any alarm if he reached out to his cousin. Family was everything in the Wizarding World and even family in disagreement with opposing view was still family. Asking his cousin Narcissa if she happened to have an extra elf that he could purchase in order to fill out the Black elves ranks now that most were dead was only to be expected. The iffy part was getting them to choose Dobby as the elf to sell.

That was where Dobby's part would come in. The elf would be doing his utmost to broadcast his dislike for his family and to subtly but openly defy them in small ways that would make him even more unsavory to the family than he already was; all the while being careful that it was Narcissa who noticed these things instead of her more violent husband.

Leaving Harry with nothing to do other than watch from the background and hope that things went the way they were supposed to. He hadn't needed to manipulate people on such a level during this lifetime and he was severely out of practice. Sirius was also still recovering from Azkaban and his own skills in the subject were lacking from it, leaving everything mostly up to Dobby. Not that it worried Harry any, considering how dedicated the little house-elf was.

That didn't mean that Harry wasn't anxious, however, and it was obvious in his posture.

"You really like that little elf, eh?" Sirius asked, smiling lightly. Harry wasn't sure why his godfather was so pleased about that but decided not to bother asking. He had a feeling that he didn't want to know the answer just yet.

"So what house are we going to see first?" Harry asked, changing the subject. Gabriel snorted in their mind at the obvious diversion yet Sirius seemed pleased with him for another strange reason that he would likely not like the reason behind. He wasn't sure why he wouldn't like the reason behind whatever it was that was causing Sirius to act the way he was, he just knew that he wouldn't. One of those sixth senses that people, even archangels, couldn't explain the reasons behind.

Sirius accepted the subject change easily enough. "We're going to visit the other Black Family properties first," he told him easily. "We have three other than this place and I doubt that the elves in those homes have been killed off yet so they should be in good condition."

"Why not assign those elves to help with Grimmauld?" Harry asked as he followed his godfather into the yard. It seemed that Molly had warned his godfather of his Floo problem as Sirius held out a portkey for him to take.

"Each elf is bound to the property that they've been assigned," Sirius explained as Harry took the portkey. "They've also been barricaded from all the other properties to prevent other Black Family members from ordering their elves into the other homes to sabotage each other."

_'Brutal,'_ Gabriel grimaced.  _'Not the kind of family that everyone wants to have, then.'_

'Definitely not,' Harry agreed, mildly disturbed. Family harming each other had never sat well with him. Sometimes the mere idea had something within him aching. He didn't bring up the strange feeling to Gabriel, knowing that he wouldn't receive and answer if he did.

"Brace yourself," Sirius warned. Harry complied, remembering just how bad the memories of portkeys were and not really looking forward to the real thing. "Marauder."

Just like that, the portkey sparked to life and the world disappeared in a blur of color and light. His wings burned against the magic surrounding them, nearly throwing him off course as they tried to flare out against the momentum. He fought back a whimper as he folded them in tightly and barely noticed as he hit the ground as they arrived.

"Harry?!" Sirius' voice was alarmed. He blinked up to see his godfather staring at him with wide eyed concern. Groaning, he sat up to see that the patch of grass around him was charred and dead.

"I guess portkeys are out of the question," the man said with a rather forced chuckle as Harry stood up. "If this is how they react, I'd hate to see what Floo does to you. We'll try Apparition next."

Harry sighed, looking mournfully at the dead grass. He had no doubt that the problem had come from the magic of the portkey clashing with the Grace in his wings.  _'Never. Again.'_  Gabriel moaned in their head.  _'Our wings feel burned.'_

They looked burned too, Harry noted. Making sure to study them when his godfather was looking, Harry noticed that the feathers were mostly charred and covered in soot like he'd been standing over a fire. The appendages had never looked so ragged before and Harry had to stomp on the urge to shift his fingers in the feathers and groom them. He knew that Sirius would definitely notice that.

"Here we are!" Sirius said, grinning. "Welcome to Black Manor."

Harry couldn't help but look around him in shock. The Manor was surrounded by woods on all sides of them and was made out of black marble, contrasting greatly amongst the greenery.

"It's very…" Harry trailed off, not sure of the right word that wouldn't offend the man.

Sirius snorted. "It's dreary and creepy on the best of days," he assured the boy. "I didn't particularly like it very much either but the manor is part of the Black Family history so there isn't much that I can do about it. I didn't really expect you to like it though I wasn't completely sure you wouldn't."

There wasn't much else to say to that and they continued toward the imposing manor. "Ellie!" Sirius called as they reached the manor entrance. A soft pop and the giant wood doors creaked open to reveal a startled house elf.

"Masters Sirius, sirs!" The little elf squeaked with large eyes. "Whats cans Ellie be doings for yous, sirs?"

"I just came from Grimmauld Place to find only one remaining elf. I came to make sure I didn't need to fill any positions here as well," Sirius told her, far more kindly than he had behaved with Kreacher. There was definitely some history behind them, Harry noted to himself absently. He had a feeling that he was better off keeping silent about the obvious differences. If Sirius decided to tell him, well, that was up to the older man.

After all, Harry wasn't one who could complain about others keeping secrets. He had so many of them himself that it would hypocritical of him. So he remained silent as Sirius spoke with the house-elf, enquiring into the welfare of their health and the state of the property. It was obvious that the man was anxious to leave and Harry really couldn't blame him. Just the feeling of this place was enough to make Harry want to run in the opposite direction. He had no idea how people had been able to live here at all and he didn't envy Sirius one bit for owning the place. Family home or not, Harry would have burned it to the ground.

Thankfully, they didn't stay any longer than a few minutes. Harry had little doubt that that Sirius had noticed his discomfort and had cut the visit short for his sake. He wasn't sure why but the entire place had his skin crawling, as if there was something sinister in the very ground that the Manor sat on. Gabriel silence only made his skin crawl all that much more. The Archangel hadn't spoken more than once since they got here and it was unlike his other half to keep quiet like he was.

_"Don't draw attention to us,"_  said Archangel hissed, suddenly. Harry almost jumped at the sudden voice. Of course as soon as Harry even so much as noted his silence, the Archangel would choos then to speak up.

'What's wrong?' he asked ad he followed Sirius to the apparition point.

_'We're being watched.'_  Gabriel told him and Harry could feel the hairs on his arms stand on end.

'By what?' He hissed, glancing around quickly. He saw nothing but Sirius in front of him, the hallway to the apparition point empty of everything.

_"A being from the Other."_  Gabriel practically whispered.  _"There must be a breach here. It shouldn't be able to see us clearly enough or else it would have already attached."_

'Just what is the other?' Harry demanded. The name caused a shiver to run down his spine. Whatever it was, his instincts were telling him to get as far away from here as possible.

_"Something you don't want to mess with. If there's a breach here, there's bound to be more. I'm beginning to think know that our Grace ending up here wasn't a coincidence."_

Before Harry could demanded further explanation, Sirius interrupted. "Here we are!"

Harry glanced around him in disbelief. If he thought that the rest of the place was dark, this place took the cake. "Are those human skulls?!"

_"Starting to understand why they call this family Black."_  Gabriel hissed.  _"This place is saturated in dark magic. What is wrong with this family?!"_

"Probably," Sirius grimaced. "The last Black that lived here was a bit…mad."

_"A bit? More like a lot."_  Harry snorted. Gabriel was right; this place was covered in foul looking magic. He'd never seen such nauseating magic in his life and it was just as volatile in nature as well. Wisps of black magic attempted to actually attached them, stopped only by the Lord ring on Sirius' finger. His wings shuddered at the close proximity of the magic, drawing in close to his back in order to protect him if need be. He had a strong suspicion that they were also trying to hide themselves from whatever it was that had his skin crawling and Gabriel on alert.

"Let's get out of here," he told Sirius as he shivered. "This place gives me the creeps."

Thankfully, Sirius obliged. Grabbing onto the man's hand, he felt the world compress around hi as they vanished from the room, leaving this place behind.

* * *

Sirius didn't take them to anymore Black properties after that. Harry figured that his reaction at the Manor was more extreme than he had first thought. He couldn't find it in himself to really care all that much. He didn't need anything else to add to his already numerous questions. Questions that Gabriel was refusing to answer until they were back in the safety of the Burrow. Whatever the Other was, it had the Archangel spooked.

It didn't help matters that Sirius definitely could tell that something was wrong. He could see the uncertain worry in his godfathers' eyes as they made their way to Gringotts.

The day only got that much more complicated as they approached the bank entrance and the goblin standing guard nearly fell over in shocked fear.

"What in the name of Merlin?" Sirius muttered, giving the goblin what could only be the most befuddled look that ever crossed the man's face. Harry, however, felt his entire body tense as he noticed that the gaze of the goblin was locked on him and his wings.  _"Oh great,"_ Gabriel all but moaned.  _"As if our say couldn't get any worse."_


	30. Chapter 30

He was so screwed. There was no way in Hell Sirius could miss the look on the face of the goblin. In fact, he was lucky that they were the only other one's occupying the steps at the moment otherwise Harry would have an even bigger problem on his hands than just Sirius. He was just lucky that he had managed to keep his status a sect this long. It was complete dumb luck that he hadn't been found out by the goblins later summer when he had first sprouted wings.

Too be honest, he'd forgotten that the goblins already knew about him, somewhat. The meeting between them during the summer before second year had practically faded into nothing with the move memories that he regained. Add that to the events of the past two years and Harry interaction with the goblins had been pushed so far back that he had to actively strain to bring the memory forward.

"We should go inside," he said hastily, grabbing a still stunned Sirius' hand and dragging him into the white marble building forcefully. Any longer and even the inattentive occupants of the Alley would notice what was going on. That was the last thing that Harry needed right now.

Sirius barely did more than grunt in confusion as he let himself be dragged through the doors willingly. As soon as the doors shuttered together behind them, Sirius broke out of his stunned stupor. Grey eyes locked on him intently as he came to a forceful stop before they reached the second set of doors. "What was that?!"

_'Lie,'_  Gabriel suggested quickly.

Yeah, no. Harry, and Gabriel, both knew that lying would only complicated matters when the truth did finally come out. While pretending to be ignorant of what just happened was tempting it want the way to go. "Later," he told him. This conversation was not one that should be held out in the open.

Sirius seemed to come to the same conclusion as he didn't protest as they made their way further into the bank. Harry pulled his wings tightly into his body in a way that made him ache just a bit. He shook his head slightly at the staring goblins as he walked past, silently begging them not to make a scene. Sirius walked up to the nearest free teller while Harry hung back. He didn't hear what was being said but soon they were being lead into the deepest part of the bank, far past where Harry had been taken last time.

"Griphook and Snapfang will see you now," the goblin snarled before edging around them in the opposite direction, sending Harry slightly fearful glances as he did. Sirius was quick to pick up on this as well and Harry had to fight down the urge to flee under his godfathers' gaze.

"I expect answers," the man told him, his face saying that there was no way he could let this go. Perhaps he might have been willing to wait if not for the reactions of the goblins. Harry knew that his godfather was already beginning to at least suspect something was off about him and he had no doubt at all that the man had been planning on waiting for him to trust him enough to tell him what that something was.

Yet the goblins were a warrior race and to have one cower at the sight of him and the others to regard him warily had pushed the matter.

_'Fucking goblins,'_ he heard Gabriel mutter. For once, Harry was in complete agreement. This was not how he was planning very for his day to go, thanks.

He was startled out of his somewhat bitter thoughts as the door swung open and revealed the two waiting goblins on the other side. He followed his godfather into the room hesitantly, careful to slowly release his wings from his back as they made their way further into the large stone room. The two goblins were sat around a conference table with two files in front of them.

"Mr. Potter," Griphook greeted him. The other goblin snarled and drew back with a hiss as soon as he caught sight of him. "I see that you have continued to progress since we last met."

"Is this room secured?" Sirius all but demanded. There was steel in his voice that was likely keeping other, more volatile, emotions from coming out to play. Harry felt a bit guilty that the man had to find out this way but it was probably for the best considering his track record of actually telling anyone. He could admit that he likely would have found out in a much worse way if it had been up to Harry.

Gabriel kept silent; seemingly compete at ease with letting his more human counterpart handle this.

"Of course. Information like this cannot be discussed without the proper procedures put in place." The other goblin snapped, gaze darkening as he looked at Harry with distaste. He couldn't decide if that was better or worse than fear _. 'Worse.'_

'Not the time,' Harry scolded. He didn't even bother analyzing this interaction. It was pretty much a given that they were the perfect example of insanity at this point.

"So why don't we begin by letting me in on whatever it is that you all know and I don't?" Sirius ignored the goblins as he turned to Harry. "Starting with what you are." What you are, not who you are. That Sirius hadn't made that distinction meant that the man had been suspicious for quite a while before this had happened. Harry was willing to bet that Remus was at least partially behind some of it.

If the goblins could see his wings, it wasn't a step up to think that a werewolf would be able to sense something was off with him. Which meant that Harry would likely have to have this conversation twice. Well, more than that since he'd have to tell Hermione and Ron once he figured out a way to be certain that they'd be able to keep it quiet. Speaking of that….

Sirius was way ahead of him. "I'm well versed in Occlumency if that's what you're worried about." The man told him before Harry could say one word. Harry blinked and felt like hitting his head against the wall.

'How could we have not thought of that?' Gabriel groaned. Harry had to admit, he'd forgotten about Occlumency. In all of his loves in the Wizarding World, he'd been absolutely rubbish at the mind arts and had mostly ignored that branch of magic. He suspected his inability to grasp the subject had something to do with only being part of himself.

The goblins weren't a risk, either. It would be suicidal to even attempt to gain information from the warrior race and they definitely wouldn't offer it up freely less Harry take offense to it. Griphook knew his name from that visit two years ago and now that he knew what Harry was, there was no way he'd risk angering an Archangel.

Harry took a deep breath, reading himself for the conversation ahead. "I'm going to have to start at the beginning. How much do you know of my first year?"

And the story began to unfold as Harry told him about Hope and the tree, talking about waking up in the clearing with no memory of getting there and how he hadn't questioned it until the voice in his head appeared.

"Voice in your head?!" Sirius shrieked. "Harry, that's not normal!" As if Harry wasn't aware of exactly how not normal this situation was.  _'Normal took one look at us and fled,_ ' the Archangel joked. Harry snorted silently; he hated to admit it but that might be more true than either of them wanted to admit.

"Nothing about this is normal." Harry told him point blankly. Then he took a deep breath and began telling them about Gabriel and what Gabriel, what he really was. That's when Sirius went stark white and Snapfang pulled back with shock.

"Oh Merlin," Sirius moaned, leaning his head down into his hands. Really, he was taking it better than Harry had thought that he would. He'd honestly been expecting a giant freak out and crisis in faith.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked as Gabriel snorted in their head. Harry didn't bother replying, he knew it was a stupid question but he still had to ask. It wasn't every day that one learned that God was real, so were angels, and your godson was actually a reincarnated Archangel.

"I just found out that my godson is a reincarnated Archangel and has wings, a sword, and memories that talk to him. What part of that am I supposed to be alright with?"

_'When you put it like that…'_ Gabriel drawled rather smugly. Harry stomped on the urge to throttle him, now was not the time, damn it. "It's not all that bad," he said comfortingly. It was a lie.

_'No he's right, it is pretty bad.'_  Gabriel said easily  _. 'We nearly die every year and we'll be lucky if the Other doesn't pick up on our presence and hunt us down.'_

'Hush.' Turning to Sirius he shrugged easily. "It sounds bad, I know. I'm the one dealing with the fact that while I'm nearly fourteen, I have the memories of being hundreds of different people, the oldest of which I was ninety along with the slowly returning memories of being an Archangel older than the universe."

He took a breath. "Yet I haven't died yet and underneath it all, I'm still me. My life as Harry is the one at the front of it all. I'm still me."

It was true, as well. Despite all those memories and the knowledge that came with, Harry was still Harry in every way that mattered. If anything, he was more himself than he had ever been before Hogwarts.

And for the first time since this had all began, Harry felt completely at peace with himself.

Gabriel remained silent.

* * *

Sirius hadn't been expecting things to go this way. He never expected to find out what was so off with his godson so soon or in such a way. He'd been perfectly content with waiting for Harry to trust him and Remus, eventually letting them both in.

And to think, he'd thought nothing Harry could tell him would be all that bad. He'd consoled himself with the thought that Harry was still Harry.

And that was true but in a way it still wasn't. He might be Harry but he was also hundreds of other people and an Archangel to top it all off.

Sirius knew the religion, muggle or not. Lily had been Christian despite how looked down it was to practice a muggle religion in the Wizarding World. Sirius had been fascinated with the religion and Lily had been more than happy to tell him all the stories.

So he knew about the angel Gabriel, the Messenger of God. He didn't know if he should laugh or cry at the irony of Harry being the same Archangel that his mother had spoken of so long ago. He wondered if it was just coincidence that Lily had been the one chosen to give birth to an actual angel in human form. He definitely wanted to laugh hysterically at all those purebloods that had sniffed in distain and ridiculed Lily for her 'foolish muggle beliefs'. As it turned out, the juggles had it right this entire time. The gods of old had not been the ones go create them, it had been the one God that the muggles came to worship.

The looks on their faces would be priceless. Those smug, superior assholes would likely have a heart attack to learn that they had been wrong for so many centuries.

"Um, are you sure you're okay?" Harry's (Gabriel's?) voice broke through his nearly hysterical musings.

"Probably not," he admitted. "Give me a minute while I try and process this."

Harry gave him a concerned look but nodded in consent. No doubt he was arguing with the memories of his Archangel self, which wasn't a subject he'd be willing to touch with a forty foot broom, thank you very much.

"If we could return to business?" the goblin Griphook interrupted. "There is much to discuss. Particularly in the case of Gabriel."

* * *

Harry was pretty sure Sirius was having a nervous breakdown. The only thing keeping his godfather from collapsing in hysterics completely was the interruption of Griphook. The goblin was not nearly as weary of him as Snapfang was and seemed very interested in negotiating with him. With Gabriel.

It was the first time he'd been addressed as Gabriel since this entire thing had started and Harry found himself actually responding to the name in the same way he did with the name Harry, Gabriel's voice eerily silent in the back of his mind.

He was a good hundred years into his life as Gabriel so it really shouldn't have been such a surprise yet it still managed to five him pause. The silence from his counterpart was what really caught his attention. The voice in the back of his head that he had come to expect after the last two years was suddenly just gone and it unnerved him.

What was it going to be like, he wondered, when he and that voice were completely the same person again? Was he going to remember the time spent as a voice in his own head? He didn't know and he suspected Gabriel didn't know either.

"The goblin nation would like to extend our greetings," Griphook began. "To the Archangel Gabriel. It has been a long time since one of the Celestials graced this world with their presence. Many have forgotten your species nearly entirely."

Harry shrugged, knowing that was true. Luna wasn't sure what he was even though she could see him. "Not surprising," he told them. "From what I remember so far, most are likely focused on the first Earth."

"Frist Earth?!" Sirius moaned, rubbing his temples. Harry grimaced in sympathy. His head had hurt quite a bit when he'd first had this explained to him. And it still hurt a bit every now and then if he was being truthful. And as lying to himself wasn't a problem that he really wanted to deal with on top of everything else, so he was.

"From what I've been told and have also remembered, there are thousands if not millions of separate universes, each with their own Earth. Each one differs from each other in either large or small ways, all of them noticeable. The First Earth was the first of them all to be created and has the weakest barriers between dimensions because of that." Or at least, Gabriel theorized that was why the First Earth had so many problems with Demons and Eve's children running around causing chaos.

"Dimensions?" Sirius looked afraid to know.

"Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell." Harry listed them off easily. He had only vague notions of Purgatory from his memories, having only just cast away the Leviathan into the newly created prison for the abominations. He still shuddered whenever an image of them entered his mind. "Hell is where the demons live and Purgatory is where the creatures that prove themselves to be a threat are imprisoned."

_'And where Eve's children go when they die.'_  Gabriel added, finally speaking up.  _'Then there's the Other.'_

'What is the Other, anyways?' Harry asked, frowning. The room went silent as three sets of eyes trained on him as he continued explaining.

_'Might as well,'_  Gabriel muttered.  _'You'll be more prepared when the memories come. The Other is Amara, or at least small parts of Amara's power that has become somewhat sentient over the eons.'_

'Who's Amara and why would it attack us?' Harry demanded. Why did that name send a shiver down his spine and make his skin crawl in fear? Even his wing shuddered and twitched at the name, drawing the attention of the goblins. He shook his head, letting them know not to ask. To his relief, they didn't mention the slight discomfort and allowed him to continue the conversation without pause.

_'The humans think that God was the first being yet that isn't true. Amara is, in human terms, our Aunt and God's older sister. While we did fight help in imprisoning the Leviathan, that was not the reason we were made. She is the Darkness and the original Evil. And the Archangels were created to be the light that helped God fight her in a war that was waged for eons, long before He created the First Earth and our siblings._

_Amara, like God, is amortal. They predate everything, although she predates even Him. It's impossible to kill her but we were able to lock her up instead. Yet the lock wasn't completely full proof and small parts of her power are able to affect the outside world. These bits began to gain their own sentience and they have just enough of her memories to hate and attack angels, especially the Archangels. Yet since we have little to no Grace showing at the moment, we were able to keep from being spotted.'_

'So you're telling me that this world is infected with these things. And we can't kill them but they can kill us?' Harry tried to keep his voice steady as he answered another question Sirius had asked. He steadily ignored he the 'God's older sister' part of the explanation. "Yes, I can fly." He informed the now excited man with a shake grin. "Somewhat. I only have one set of wings at the moment when I used to have three. It's a work in progress if I don't want to end up in China on accident."

_'Not really,'_  Gabriel hedged _. 'While Amara is amortal, her power isn't. It just takes nearly the full power of a full-fledged Archangel to destroy one.'_

'Which we don't have at the moment,' Harry concluded. He closed his eyes as a headache throbbed behind them. 'You think that our Grace was put here so we'd become aware of the problem.' And fix it once they were able, though Harry left that unsaid.

_'Pretty much,'_  was the reply.

"Harry, are you okay? You're looking a bit pale." Sirius asked, pulling his attention back to the room at large.

"Not really," he admitted. "But you really don't want to know why."

Well wasn't this just great.


	31. Chapter 31

Sirius took the revelation pretty well, Harry thought to himself as they finished up their home search. After the bank, the man had perked right up as if he hadn't just learned that angels existed and his godson was a reincarnated Archangel. They had continued the day as if nothing had ever happened, going from one prospective home to the next. Harry had final say on which one they choose, for more reasons than Sirius had originally intended on, and after a long day of searching Harry found that he was more than pleased with a small farm house that was located in the middle of a forest, with no one around for miles. It was a bit far away from the Burrow yet the Floo system would fix that problem right away.

Sirius had been pleased with his choice as well. Harry figured that the farm house had been his godfather's top choice as well. The place was warm, far away from noisy witches and wizards, and could easily house a werewolf. And Harry knew that it would even if Harry himself had to drag the werewolf here by force. Which he would, if it came to that.

So they had their home. The next step would be furnishing it, moving in, and unpacking. The next step was figuring out where they would go from there. While Sirius was great at pretending the bank had never happened, Harry knew that it had changed how their relationship would progress and he also knew that if they didn't address the situation then it was going to halt any relationship they attempted.

At the same time, he had no idea how exactly how to approach the man about what he had learned in that bank. He didn't know how to react to having someone know, completely  _know_ , what and who he really was. Even Luna had no idea that he was an Archangel, though she probably suspected that he was an angel already just from the wings. She didn't know that he had been reincarnated into multiple human lives. She had no idea that he was the Archangel Gabriel and was quite literally older than dirt itself, not to mention the entire planet.

Harry himself was still trying to wrap his head around it. So instead of talking to his godfather and discussing the issue, Harry decided to put the problem off. "So what does Remus know?" he asked.

Sirius looked at him, obviously surprised by the question. "What makes you think Remus knows anything?" the man asked, deflecting.

"He's a werewolf," Harry deadpanned watching the man flinch. "And I know for a fact that he should have at least sensed something from me. Everything in the Forbidden Forest can tell I'm not human and would be able to even if my tree hadn't been located there."

Sirius still looked conflicted. Harry sighed. "Look, I don't care. Lycanthropy is something that differs between worlds and honestly, this is one of the less horrifying version of it that I've seen and that's just my human memories. I wouldn't be surprised if there are even worse versions of it in my Archangel memories once I get that far."

_'_ _There are,'_  Gabriel assured. Harry decided to leave that out of their conversation. "I may not be able to read souls fluently but I can tell that he's a good person and being a werewolf hasn't changed that. I also know that there have been more than a few things he's witnessed about me that could cause suspicion."

"You can read souls?" Sirius asked his eyes wide. Despite being caught off guard by the mention of soul reading, a large smile was firmly working its way across his face. "He knows that you're not human. I don't know what you know about Lycanthropy in this world but the wolf is sentient within the human, no matter if the moon is full or not and is always aware. Remus and Moony both noticed something off about you when you first met, though that wasn't what convinced Remus that something was wrong. Moony actually seems to  _relax_  around you, something that he's never done before, not even with the Marauders. If that wasn't enough, Remus said there was something strange about your Patronus."

'Great,' Harry groaned. Gabriel hummed in agreement. They'd hoped the man would write the incident off as a fluke.

"Our Grace influenced it a bit and it took the form off an angel," Harry explained with a grimace. "We've had to keep a better check on Grace to prevent it from happening again."

Sirius nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. Corporal Patroni don't just half form and they definitely don't become light with wings. Remus wasn't really sure what it was that caused it to form like that. We thought it might have something to do with why Dementors hate you."

Harry paused for a moment, frowning. "It sort of does. From what I can tell, the Dementors know what I am and they feel threatened by it. I think, if I tried, I might be able to actually kill them. I'm not completely sure on that though."

" _Kill one_?!" Sirius whispered, stunned. To a wizard that had spent over a decade in their presence and had grown up hearing horror stories about the creatures, the very idea was almost laughable. Dementors didn't die and they couldn't be killed, only driven off. Yet Harry wasn't just a normal wizard, he was an Archangel. He was older than the very planet and with that in mind, killing a Dementor didn't seem so impossible.

"Like I said, I don't know for sure since we've no clue what the hell they are. Yet the next time I see one, I'll definitely be finding out." Harry let his absolute contempt for the creatures show as he sneered. He really hated those things with a passion.

Sirius shook his head before sighing. "As interesting as killing Dementors is, why did you want to know about Remus?"

Harry blinked, having thought that would be obvious. "He's a werewolf, knows that I'm not human, and is going to be living with us. I wanted to know how he would take the news about what I'm not human. If he already knows I'm not human, he's not going to freak out nearly as much as Ron and Hermione will once I tell them."

Sirius stopped dead, grey eyes locked on Harry. He didn't seem to know if he should be frowning or smiling. "You plan on telling Ron and Hermione?" he asked first, addressing the last part as it was the more worrying part of what Harry had just said.

"They already know something is off with me," Harry told the man easily. "They don't know what but they know that I'm hiding something. All of this started happening during my second year so they already knew me well enough to tell I was different and the rate I was regaining memories and changing during second year was fast enough for them to see the differences."

"And if they started looking for answers in the library they wouldn't find anything but they would chance bringing attention to the fact that there's something off about you." Sirius finished. That had been a real concern for him and James when they began searching for answers on what could possibly cause Remus to disappear for a few days each month. It was only with the Map and the Invisibility Cloak that they had managed to keep their research from anyone else. It was clearly a secret that the teachers and Remus didn't want getting out and hiding something in Hogwarts wasn't an easy thing to do.

"They go to the library without me often enough while looking up magical creatures, illnesses, or anything of the sort and it'll be all over the school within the month." Harry agreed. "I didn't really know how I was going to be able to tell them until you mentioned Occlumency."

Sirius sat up straighter. "That would give them the necessary skill and discipline to keep it quiet, if they manage to learn it but that's not a guarantee Harry. Not everyone can learn Occlumency."

"But there are items out there that can give the wearer a similar protection." Harry said, pleased. Once he'd been reminded of the branch of magic, he had called up all the memories he had on the subject. He hadn't been able to master the art so he'd resorted to using those items himself in past lives. He was certain that he could find one if either Ron or Hermione couldn't master the art. He was sure that Hermione, at least, would be able to get it down easily enough.

"True," his godfather conceded with a shrug. "Alright, I'd be willing to teach them and I'm sure I've got books on the subject somewhere. I'll talk to Molly and Arthur about it first, though. Might as well see if their other children would like to try it out as well; no doubt you'll want to tell the other eventually."

Harry couldn't stop the bright smile from taking over his face while Gabriel hummed happily in the back of their mind. There was a lot they still needed to talk about. He wasn't sure how Sirius really felt about this whole thing and they still needed to sit down and talk about it, but this was a start.

And it was a wonderful start at that.

* * *

The next few days were spent furnishing and slowly moving into their new house. Sirius had recruited the Weasley's help in getting the house up to livable standards as it had been empty for a while.

Ron, Harry, and Ginny were assigned the tasked of moving each packed box to its correct room. Harry found the task to be rather tedious and yet he still couldn't help but relish in the task. It was nice, he reflected, to know that this would be his home.

Percy and Sirius were on painting duty, giving each wall a fresh coat of paint that brightened up the entire place while the Twins were on furniture duty.

Sirius had hired Bill through Gringotts to work on the wards of the house. Bill had recruited his parents to help him in the task and the three eldest Weasley's were setting up the warding around the property.

By the time the week was over, the farm house looked brand new and was ready to move into. Harry couldn't help but preen at his new bedroom. The walls were painted a beautiful green with gold linings, no doubt meant to represent the feathers of his wings. He had described them to Sirius when the man asked during the week.

The bookshelf and desk were made out of a beautiful holly wood, the same as his wand, and carved with an intricate scene of a family of unicorns, no doubt based on one of the many pictures Harry had taken of Hope and her foals. He suspected that Hagrid had been the one to carve them as the work looked very familiar to the figurines that the man had given him over the years.

The closet had been filled with Harry's Hogwarts' robes as well as a few dress robes and a few pairs of new shoes. Harry smiled at them red and gold scarves on the back of the door before closing it and tuning to explore the rest of his room.

While his desk and bookshelf both were works of art, his dresser was plain holly and stood proudly on the wall parallel to his bed. It still managed to be beautiful in its own right and the wooden figurines on top added to the look.

His bed was decorated in the same colors as the rooms and was placed to the right of the window. Harry sat down on top of the green comforter and smiled. This was  _his_  room and it was more than he had imagined it would be.

_'_ _And window's big enough to fly through once we get better control,'_  Gabriel added, pleased.

'Or with our broom,' Harry pointed out. Said broom was propped up against the window. It would be nice to fly it during the holidays and not just at school.

He was drawn out of his thoughts by a gentle tapping coming from the window. He looked up and saw Hedwig perched behind the glass. Harry stood and moved towards the window, pushing it open. The white owl hooted in greeting as she flew into the room before settling on the bookshelf. He would have to get a perch for her, Harry thought as she made herself comfortable.

It was then that Havoc and Tinker made their presence known, fluttering out of his pocket sleepily. The two looked around in curiosity.

"Feel free to look around," Harry told them with a smile. "Sirius already knows you're here so you have free reign."

The pixies grinned at him and departed, off to explore their new home. Harry suspected that the two were going to be staying around for much longer than he'd originally thought. Ruth purred from his spot under the bed and Harry laughed. An owl, two pixies, and a sentient book. Harry wasn't sure what it said about him that each year, he had yet another addition to his little following and couldn't help but wonder what stray he'd pick up this year.

"Harry, Remus is here!"

Harry grinned, closed the window and made his way out of the room. He'd just have to wait and see.


	32. Chapter 32

Harry was having the best summer vacation that he had ever had. He could visit his friends whenever he wanted, he had his own room, and he had his family. The Weasley's, Remus, and Sirius were available to him whenever he needed them, something that he had never had in summer's previous. The only thing that would make this better was if Hope, her foals, and Hagrid were here as well.

Two weeks after finishing the move into his new home, Harry was finally completely accustomed to his surroundings and he was comfortable enough to practice his flying and sword fighting skills I the safety of his room and the surrounding property.

On the days that he did this, Sirius would often tag along to observe him and give pointers here and there on his stance. Sirius was by no means a sword fighter but the man was a former Auror and an accomplished duelist. He could easily identify the weaknesses in Harry's balance and stance, letting him know how to fix the problems after he spotted them.

Harry was now slowly teaching his godfather how to fight with a sword as well. Sirius had shown interest after the third time he'd watched him practice and Harry had offered to teach him the basics in sword fighting, which the man had quickly agreed to. He didn't know how often his godfather would find himself in a position to use a sword instead of his wand but after the basilisk, Harry could see the perks of learning alternate fighting styles.

By the third week living in their new home, Sirius and Harry had set up a routine. Every morning they would wake up at six and go for a small run to build up endurance, a practice that Sirius had gained from his Auror training. After the run, they would stretch and begin sword practice using dummies that Sirius had conjured. Sirius would give Harry tips on his balance and Harry would correct Sirius' technique. After that, the two would eat breakfast and Sirius would work on his Occulmency shields.

Occulmency was one of the reasons that Sirius had managed to keep sane during his time in Azkaban. It was also why he had been able to recover so quickly. According to Sirius, his walls had taken a severe beating due to the Dementors. Even though he'd been free of their influence for over a year his walls still weren't at their maximum strength, a problem that he needed to fix if he wanted to teach Ron and Hermione.

While Sirius fixed his walls, Harry practiced his flying. Each day, he managed to get ten feet in the air before he began having problems. After a year of practice, he was finally getting somewhere and Harry couldn't express how excited this made him. Gabriel was just as thrilled.

Harry couldn't help but connect his new progress to the increased size of his wings, whenever he tried to think about when he'd started gaining better control. Gabriel never commented when Harry brought the subject up.

Either way, once Harry finished mastering in air flight, they would be able to start practice dimensional flight.

Dimensional flight was the ability all angels had to transport from one place to another in a millisecond. From what Harry gathered, the ability was a lot like apparition, if not much more conformable and less nauseating. It was also a lot harder to master than regular flight and much more time consuming. Harry had no doubt that it would take him much longer than a year to master but he knew it would be worth it. Once he was old enough, he could even use the ability in place of apparition with no one the wiser.

After he was done practicing flying, Harry would alternate working on controlling his other abilities, namely soul and magic reading.

Each spell had a different color and feel to it with no spell aura being a like. While some spells where the same color, they were always just a shade off from being identical. Each spell also had a different feel to it depending on whether or not it was Light, Dark, or Neutral. Dark spells had a feeling of danger to them while Light spells felt like safety. Neutral spells tended to feel like a mix of the two, with the option to both hurt and save behind each on. Magic was all about intent and Neutral spells were a strong example of this fact.

With all of that accomplished, Harry left the rest of the day free for whatever he wanted to do. Most days he would Floo over to the Burrow to visit Ron. Hermione was on vacation in Greece with her family, so it was just Ron and the rest of the Weasley's at the Burrow.

Percy wasn't around often, having graduated the year before. The redhead was working in the Archives of the Ministry. After the fiasco with Sirius, a new division of the Ministry bad been established to go through all the records and make sure nothing had been overlooked. Since Percy had been affected personally by the miscarriage of justice with Pettigrew, he had been immediately hired after he had applied. It seemed the head of the new division thought that Percy would be an asset as well as sufficiently motivated to do the job correctly.

He wasn't wrong either. Percy took dedication to the extreme, going through every file with a fine toothed comb. It was impressive to watch, truthfully. Molly and Arthur beamed in pride every time they saw Percy hard at work. Ron was usually helping him and Harry was starting to suspect that Ron planned on joining the division after graduation as well.

The twins even went out of their way to keep from interrupting the two while they worked. Their efforts spoke loudly of their thoughts on the Pettigrew situation. Both lamented all the failed opportunities they had at pranking the rat. Harry had even caught Percy apologizing for stopping some of the other pranks on 'Scabbers' when they were younger.

Harry usually took turns hanging out with the twins, Ron and Percy, and Ginny during his visits. Sometimes he helped go through the files with Percy or went flying with Ron of went exploring with Ginny and Luna.

The youngest of the Weasley children was much more calm and open with him than when they had first met. Ginny had gotten over her crush during the year before and Harry had to say that he couldn't have been more grateful of that.

Luna made their explorations all that much more interesting. Harry wasn't sure what the creatures that she spoke of were but he doubted that they were made up like Ginny assumed they were. Luna's second sight made it highly likely that she could actually see these creatures even though most couldn't even tell that they were there.

Ginny didn't seem to mind looking for made up creatures, though, and they spent most evenings amongst the forest around the Burrow.

It was the best summer that Harry had ever had.

* * *

Harry had known that he was going to have this conversation. He'd been preparing for it ever since he had spilled everything to Sirius. Remus was already suspicious and he was going to be living with them. It didn't make sense to try and hide something so important from the man.

At the same time, Harry honestly didn't want to have this conversation again. Telling Sirius had been stressful and he doubted that telling Remus would be any different.

_'_ _If this is how you're going to react every time we tell someone, we're going to have a problem.'_ Gabriel commented absently.

'I can't help it,' Harry grimaced as he tugged on a clean t-shirt. He shuddered a tad when the cloth slid through his wings. He would never get used to that feeling. 'He's either going to take this remarkably well or have us confined to St. Mungos!'

_'_ _I think you're overreacting,'_ Gabriel huffed.

'Aren't you the one that was against telling anyone in the first place?!' Harry snapped back, annoyed.

_'_ _I have no idea what you're talking about,'_ the Archangel lied smoothly. Harry didn't bother commenting on it as they both knew it was a lie.

'Whatever. Let's get this over with already.' Harry sighed. Stomping down on his nerves, Harry made his way out of his room and down the stairs.

Remus was sitting at the table with Sirius, still trying to argue against moving in with them. Harry was rather impressed that the man was still at it, seeing as both Harry and Sirius had emptied his apartment into a room in the farmhouse before kidnapping the man from the newly emptied apartment.

"Harry doesn't even know!" Remus all but shouted. The man went quiet when he noticed the thirteen year old in the doorway of the kitchen.

Sirius snickered.

Harry sighed. "You didn't tell him, did you?" Honestly, his godfather was so immature sometimes. Sirius gave an unrepentant shrug. "If this is about you being a werewolf, I figured it out months ago."

Remus froze before glaring at the still laughing Sirius. "I will get you back for this," the usually quiet man threatened. His eyes flashed gold with warning even as Sirius ignored the threat entirely. He turned to look at Harry. "You're okay with this?"

Harry could see the uncertainty in the werewolf's eyes. Harry rolled his own eyes and grinned. "Who do you think helped Sirius move all your stuff?"

Remus laughed, relaxing. "I suppose that I've been outvoted, then. Now what did you two need to tell me?"

Harry and Sirius both froze and glanced between each other. "How did…?"

Remus grinned, smug. "Werewolf." Well, then. That actually did explain everything.

_'_ _Super hearing,'_ Gabriel laughed. _'Can't believe we didn't think of that last night.'_

After moving Remus into his room, Sirius had pulled Harry aside and asked him how they were going to break the news to the werewolf. Remus had obviously overheard the conversation between them.

"You know those suspicions that we had about Harry?" Sirius started. Remus nodded and turned to Harry for an explanation. That was all the prompting Harry needed and it all came bursting out.

As Harry explained about Hope, the tree, Gringotts, and the voice in his head, Remus listened intently. The werewolf was remarkably composed compared to Sirius, just nodding along and accepting what he was being told. That is, until Harry got to the summer of third year and discovering exactly what 'Gabriel' was.

"I'm sorry," the werewolf interjected. "But did you just say _Archangel_?!"

"Caught me off guard too," Sirius tried to comfort the other man.

Remus glared at the man, silencing him. Turning to Harry, he continued. "During the match with the Dementors, the reason you slowed down was because you were using your wings?"

Harry nodded, ruffling said appendages. "I wasn't all that good at flying with them so all I could do was slow down enough that Cedric could catch me."

"This explains so much," Remus breathed. "I always wondered why Moony was so intimidated by you. It seemed odd, what with Hagrid telling everyone about how much the unicorns adored you."

"You're taking this a lot better than Sirius did," Harry informed the man, somewhat relieved. Sirius shrugged, as if uncaring that he had reacted the way he did.

"I've had longer to come to terms with something being off about you." Remus smiled kindly. "Lily was always going on about Angels and muggle religions, so this isn't entirely surprising."

"Mum was religious?" Harry asked, surprised.

"She was. It was odd, considering most muggleborns give up religion upon learning about magic. Lily was particularly stubborn, though. I suppose it isn't all that surprising to find out that she was right. She was rarely ever wrong." Remus reminisced.

_'_ _Wow,'_ Gabriel mused. _'I really hope she never found out how wrong the bible got it. It's never all that good when a religious person meets an actual angel. We tend to stomp on all their preconceived beliefs.'_

'Do I want to know?' Harry asked. Gabriel was already a good example of how different angels were compared to the bible but from what his other self was saying, the other angels were just as bad.

_'_ _Probably not.'_

"If angels are real," Remus began, frowning. "Does that mean that everything else is real too? I know that there are a few creatures mentioned in some religious texts that wizards have never been able to prove exist. Like demons."

_'_ _Unfortunately.'_

"Unfortunately," Harry echoed Gabriel with a grimace. He didn't have any concrete memories of demons but he had asked the same question not long after he had learned what he was. Vernon and Petunia were both religious and had often speculated on demons, Satan, and angels. He supposed that it made since that his mother was religious as his grandparents had raised her and Petunia that way. It just had never occurred to him as a possibility. "Demons reside in Hell, though and those that break out tend to stick to the First Earth."

"First Earth?" Remus asked, his eyes sparkling with interest.

Harry began a detailed explanation on the different universes and the three dimensions that connected them. It was something that Gabriel had been teaching him about ever since they had discovered the Other in this universe. Sure, he would eventually remember it all but right now, there was far too much he didn't know. He doubted that the Other was the only threat that he might have to deal with before he regained all his memories and was at full power.

The rest of breakfast was spent filling Remus in on everything Harry currently knew. In all, the werewolf took the news well.

He hoped that Ron and Hermione would be this accepting. Somehow, he doubted that he was going to be that lucky when it came to his friends.


	33. Chapter 33

After that, Remus took to joining them during their routine. The werewolf was absolutely fascinated with Harry's ability of flight and the way it looked like he was standing in midair to observers. Remus was also able to contribute his own opinions on how Harry could possibly improve on his fighting stance, when it was becoming apparent that only half of what Sirius had suggested worked for Harry.

As the weeks passed, it had become obvious to Harry and Sirius that for some unknown reason, Harry was always off balance in his stances. The black haired teen had tried adjusting his stance numerous ways yet when it came down to the more complicated moves, he always ended up on the ground. It was bizarre and frankly, it was starting to piss Harry off. Gabriel was just as baffled as he was, having never encountered this problem before. Even when getting used to a human vessel, the archangel had apparently never ended up flat on his face when practicing. Harry didn't know if it was because of their situation or the face that they didn't have any access to their Grace, but something was definitely off.

It the end, it was Remus who suggested something that none of them had considered. Gabriel and Harry, because it had never proved a problem before and Sirius because he couldn't actually see them, so why would he consider it?

"Are you making sure to take your wings in account when you take your stance?" he asked, frowning as he watched them end up on the ground again.

Harry froze from his place in the dirt, eye twitching. He cursed, loudly. Why had he never considered that? It hadn't ever crossed his mind, that his wings could affect the balance of his physical body.

 _'_ _Our wings exist on the metaphysical plane. Or at least, they should.'_ Gabriel mumbled, loud enough for Harry to hear. _'When Luna was able to touch them, we wondered how she was able to. You can't touch light, not when it exists on a different plane than you do. But what if…'_

'What if…?' Harry prompted, already drawing his own conclusions and putting the pieces together. If he was right and that was what Gabriel was saying, then the rules were even more different than they had suspected.

 _'_ _What if she wasn't touching something in the metaphysical plane? What if our wings, on some level, now exist on the physical plane as well as the metaphysical plane?'_ Gabriel finished, sounding mystified and somewhat stunned. It wasn't something they had ever considered before. How could they, when it should have been impossible?

 _'_ _Looks like 'impossible' can officially be ignored when we're concerned.'_ Gabriel quipped, though his voice didn't sound any less stunned than it had before. Harry had no doubt that this was going against some rules that only Gabriel was currently aware. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know what those rules were.

"Harry?" Remus asked, uncertain about the black haired teen's sudden silence. "Is everything alright?"

Harry pulled himself back into the world around him and grinned, making sure not to give any sign that Remus' suggestion had troubled him. "Just kicking myself for not thinking of that sooner," Harry waved his concern off. "We feel a bit stupid for having forgotten to do that."

Remus and Sirius laughed, though Remus looked like he only half bought that excuse. Harry kept his features schooled, sticking his tong out at his godfather and pretending nothing world-shattering had just been discussed. Eventually, the werewolf seemed to buy it and changed the subject.

And if Remus noticed their contemplative look as Harry glanced as his wings, the man was nice enough not to say anything about it.

* * *

Harry spent the next three days holed up in the barn after they finished their routine. He'd made an excuse to various members of the Weasley family the afternoon of the first day where he claimed a summer cold. To Remus and Sirius, Harry explained that he wanted to experiment with something and it would probably be for the best if they kept away from the barn during that time. Remus seemed happy enough to let Harry have his alone time with no fuss.

Sirius, however, had been far to accepting and Harry should have been suspicious as soon as he realized the lack of protest coming from his godfather. Yet he had been so grateful that the man was willing to let it go that Harry hadn't paid it much mind. Really he should have known better.

Ever since Harry and Gabriel discussed the possibility that their wings might have a more physical presence, the two had began trying to figure out how much of a presence they had and if it could be consciously controlled. Luna wasn't always able to touch their wings, so it led them to the conclusion that they had to do something specific in order to make them more tangible.

Neither Harry or Gabriel could think of anything they had been doing that had been so different from what they usually did, though. So, after a long talk, Harry finally suggested that they try meditation first while focusing on their connection with their wings.

It had worked, surprisingly enough. After a few hours of meditation, Harry was able to actually use his wings to interact with objects in the barn and they didn't faze through solid objects like they usually did. In fact, Harry had to be careful when he spread them so that they didn't hit the walls of the barn. It hurt more than it should have when that happened, Harry found out rather quickly.

Gabriel kept mostly quiet during this time, seemingly letting Harry come to conclusions on his own instead of explaining his own theories like he usually had. Now that Harry had more memories of his beginning life as Gabriel, it was easier to put thing together without the help of his memories interjecting. He still didn't know enough about humanity and the rules of angels concerning the physical plane but he was knew enough to be able to experiment.

He was quite a bit farther in his memories than he had thought he would be by this time. He had just finished the war with Amara and there was talk of forming the universe going on. Harry couldn't help but marvel every time a brand new ball of light (which would be latter named 'stars') was added into what was nothing but a black void at the edges of Heaven and Purgatory. There wasn't even any speculation on planets or suns, or new life forms other than angels yet. Whenever he realized that, Harry had to sit down as he thought about just how long ago that had actually been. Those were times when it really sank in how old Gabriel, and therefore Harry, really was.

He kept those times to himself, not willing to let Sirius or even Remus know how out of his depth he felt sometimes. He didn't think either of them would be any help as even Gabriel wasn't much of a help when he got into one of those moods. Thankfully, they were rare and the only major one had occurred after he finished with the memories of Amara. Harry hoped, rather fruitlessly, that there weren't any other huge devastating wars that he would have to live through for a second time.

It was fruitless endeavor because Harry knew enough about religion to know that Heaven would, one day, enter a civil war with Lucifer. He wasn't completely sure who Lucifer was, not yet, but he suspected and the thought was already breaking his heart.

Gabriel never commented, remaining eerily silent whenever Harry let his mind wander down such paths. Harry chose not to comment on this, after the fact. He didn't want to know, not before he had to.

So Harry kept focusing on his wings and seeing just what he could do with them. By the third day, Harry was ninety percent sure that he had gone through everything that he could do with them on the physical plane and was getting ready to see if it was safe to do any of this within the vicinity of humans.

It turns out, he needn't have bothered worrying.

A loud clatter just outside one of the barn door windows had him sighing in resignation and annoyance. Harry let his wings slide back into their normal state before making his way over to the window and leaning out of it. Sure enough, Sirius was lying on his back and rubbing his head. Boxes were toppled over all around him, making it rather obvious that the man had been using them to look through the window which was a good fix inches taller than him. Harry had to prop himself on one of the wooden feed bucket to reach it from the inside.

Sirius grinned up at him sheepishly while Harry rolled his eyes. "You just couldn't wait a few days, could you?" Harry sighed at him.

"Well…." Sirius shrugged. "No. Not really."

* * *

It turned out that whenever Harry brought his wings into the physical plane, it made them partially visible to those around him. They weren't solid, according to what Remus and Sirius told him, but they definitely weren't hidden anymore.

It wasn't something Harry thought that he was going to get used to anytime soon. Having the usually invisible and intangible appendages suddenly visible was disconcerting and somewhat annoying. He had gotten so used to not having to worry about them that having them knock into everything when he wasn't paying attention was getting on his last nerves.

Gabriel seemed to be just as thrown by the newest development. It was one thing to have them interacting with objects in a barn, having people suddenly able to see them was a totally different thing. The Archangel didn't say so yet Harry knew that he was disturbed every time Remus or Sirius commented on their wings. Harry found that he couldn't really blame him as Harry was a bit disturbed by it himself.

Add that to the fact that Harry was still trying to accept everything he had learned from his memories.

Even though it had been a while since he'd finished his memories of the war with Amara, they were still at the back of his mind. He hadn't understood why Gabriel had been so frightened of the Other at first. Sure he knew that the Other was dangerous and could kill them, especially since they needed to be at full power to defend themselves but now that he knew exactly what Amara was… It put an entirely new perspective onto the Other than he'd previously had. And that terrified him.

Amara, to put it bluntly, was God's sister and just as powerful as their Father was. And with that knowledge, Harry could understand that the Other, though they hadn't been created by Amara on purpose, was basically the Darkness's version of Archangels. Just as powerful and dangerous, yet in a totally different way. Harry was could only be glad that the Other hadn't been created on purpose and therefore didn't have the same advantages that the Archangels had.

They couldn't take Vessel's, for one, and because of that, they couldn't enter the Physical Plane. Harry could only shudder whenever he considered what the beings could do if they had full access to both planes. It was bad enough that they had access to the metaphysical plane, in Harry and Gabriel's opinion.

That wasn't what was truly bothering him, however. It was the fact that so many of them were here, on this world. According to Gabriel, they (being Gabriel and the other Archangel's) had always assumed that most of the Other had been destroyed and that only one or two even existed anymore. There had definitely been more than one or two of them around Black Manor and Harry suspected that wasn't the other place that they were in this world. Harry had more than a few suspicions that everything that was happening in this world, everything that was so wrong, was because of their presence.

"Hey Sirius?" Harry asked one morning.

Sirius looked up from his breakfast, curious as to what this was about. "Yeah?"

"You said that you grew up in Grimmauld Place," Harry started. Sirius nodded, motioning for him to continue. "If your family was the Head of the Black Family, than why didn't you live in Black Manor?"

Sirius seemed like he was about to answer before he paused. "I don't really know." He admitted, frowning. "No one has truly lived in Black Manor since my great-grandfather. For some reason, my grandfather decided to raise my father in Grimmauld Place instead. He must have told my father his reason, since Reggie and I were raised there as well."

Harry nodded and let the matter drop.

After much discussion on the topic, he and Gabriel had come to the conclusion that the Other was tainting the areas that they resided, as well as whoever else that lived within that area. Neither of them knew how long it had been happening but it had been. The Black's were a good example of this.

Sirius was the first Black of the main line to ever be Light and he was the second generation of Blacks not to be raised in the family manor. Harry had no doubt that this wasn't a coincidence. Something had spooked his godfather's great-grandfather, enough so that he made sure that his son and grandchildren were raised out of the manor. Harry dearly wanted to know what that could have been, though he doubted he'd find out anytime soon.

Harry forced those speculations to the absolute back of his mind, leaving them for Gabriel to dwell on for the most part. Harry had learned quite quickly that he didn't have all the knowledge that he needed to truly study the problem yet. Instead, he focused on the main problem that still would have existed whether or not he'd touched his tree and regained his Grace: Voldemort.

While the year before had been rather nicely free of Voldemort, that didn't mean that the Dark Lord was gone. The near demon wraith was likely still plotting out there and Harry suspected that Pettigrew would have already searched the man out now that it was common knowledge he was alive. It was just a feeling but it was one that Harry wasn't willing to ignore.

After second year and discovering that the Diary was a soul piece, Harry had slowly been building a theory, with some help from Gabriel.

For all intents and purposes, Voldemort should have died when the Killing Curse had rebounded on him October 31st, 1981. With his body destroyed, a Reaper should have picked up his soul and sent him on his way to Hell. That wasn't what had happened, though.

Instead, Voldemort was actually still _alive_ and could possibly regain a body given enough time. Harry and Gabriel had examined their memory of their encounter with him First year and his soul had most definitely still been alive. With that knowledge, they began building their theory. Voldemort had split his soul somehow and tethered those pieces to the objects. Without his complete soul, Reapers couldn't send him off to the afterlife as even though those pieces had been slit off, they were still technically tethered to the main soul piece. That small tether would keep Voldemort alive.

It was disturbing to think of, Harry grimaced. The magic to split a human soul was foul and plain evil in nature. Worst of all, there was no way that someone like Voldemort would just split his soul once, not with what the Diary soul piece had been designed to do. There was no telling how many other time the man had split his soul either, never mind what objects those pieces were now tethered to.

 _'What a summer,'_ Gabriel groaned in their mind, breaking Harry out of his thoughts.

'It would be nice to have a relatively boring year for once,' Harry agreed with a sigh. 'We're going to need access to more information than we have. For some reason, Voldemort wants us dead and we can't afford to hope that he waits until we're fully powered for his next attempt.'

 _'Those soul pieces are the real problem,'_ Gabriel said thoughtfully. _'As we are now, our magical core is matured enough to begin using the more powerful pieces of magic that we learned in our past lives. That should definitely be enough to defend ourselves and possible take him down but those soul pieces will make it impossible to put him down for good.'_

'So what we need to do is to figure out how many there are and what they are.' Harry summarized. 'Destroying them should be relatively easy with our sword.'

 _'Exactly.'_ Gabriel agreed. _'First off, we need to know what magic he used to tether them. If we know that, we might be able to find out some useful information that could lead us to figuring out how many he might be able to make or what they could be. I have a feeling that he couldn't just use any old object.'_

'Magic doesn't tend to work like that,' Harry nodded thoughtfully. 'They probably have to have so meaning behind them, at least to him. As for finding out what they are, Sirius will probably be of some help. The Black's likely have information on them in at least _one_ of their libraries.'

It wasn't much to start with but it was something that Harry didn't have to wait to take care of. He couldn't do anything about the Other's presence or their affect on this world, not yet, but he could do something about Voldemort.

And do something, he would.


	34. Chapter 34

Hermione Granger was not stupid. She was quite the opposite of stupid, thanks oh so much, and she was proud of her ability to use reason and logic to solve any situation she came across. It was her mind that had discovered what the creature in the Chamber of Secrets truly was, out of everyone who had searched for the answer since the incident fifty years ago. Not even the Headmaster had connected the dots and solved that particular riddle. No, Hermione Granger was no twee daft cow, thank you very much!

So when her best friend seemed to have a near complete personality change in a single summer, she noticed. She had no idea what had happened to change her best friend so much but she knew that whatever it was, Harry was different and that was undisputable.

He spaced out for no reason at random times, sometimes during the middle of conversations. If she didn't know better, she'd almost suspect that he was listening to someone else during those times. Who, she'd no clue as no one else was ever there besides herself or Ron for him to listen too. That, in itself, was something Harry had never done during their first year and it concerned her. Even more so when the Chamber had been opened.

For one horrible moment she had considered Harry to be behind the attacks. It couldn't be coincidence, she had told herself. Her best friend changes drastically and the Chamber of Secrets opens all at the same time? That couldn't be chance. What were the odds?

Yet it had been chance despite the odds. Harry hadn't had anything to do with the Chamber and his personality change continued long after the real culprit had been stopped as well. She had never been so relieved when they had realized that the diary Harry had found was behind it all and the thought that she'd been suspicious of Harry…well, that still managed to way upon her conscience.

So she decided to wait for Harry to tell her what had changed him. She would never jump to conclusions again, that she'd promised herself.

She still remembered the conversation they'd had, when Harry had told them that he couldn't tell them what had changed with him. Not in those words. Harry had stressed that the secret he kept was far too dangerous to tell them, not yet at least. It had hurt to know that he couldn't trust them with the knowledge just yet but not as much as she thought it should have. Not as much as she had predicted it would have when she'd considered the possibility in the past.

That was attributed to the simple fact that Harry was willing to tell them. Hermione knew that and could see it in his body language, he just couldn't do so just now. Yet it was obvious to her that he needed to talk to _someone_ about whatever it was he was hiding and she tried her hardest, along with Ron, to be one of those he went to. Surely, if they kept their mouths in check, Harry would be able to tell them? That was what they had decided after that conversation with him.

He didn't though. He still hadn't and it had been two years since the change had taken place. His continued silence only made her even more curious (and more nervous) about what it was that was so important to keep secret. It couldn't have been a horrible secret, she knew. Not with the way that unicorns and other animals reacted around him. No, it wasn't a horrible secret but it was dangerous in some way. In a way that she could not figure out despite the research, logic, and time she had spent on the problem when there were no prying eyes to see.

Thankfully the extra classes that came with third year gave her something else to focus on. Once she had dropped Divination and Muggle Studies, Hermione hadn't even needed the time turner to get to all her classes each day and had only ended up using it for a few extra hours a week. The homework was more manageable as well and she couldn't even bring herself to miss the classes all that much.

As fascinating and amusing as Muggle Studies had been, it was also the class that had given her the most homework. She was not sad to see it go, not really. It was a subject that she could go back to once she was out of school. Until then, she contented herself with Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy, and Ancient Runes. And she'd let Harry's changes slip into the back of her mind.

Until they were brought forward again in the middle of summer by one Sirius Black and his offer.

Sirius knew what was up with Harry, that much was overly apparent to her. It both pleased and saddened her that Sirius knew. It was great that Harry had someone to confide in at the same time it was also depressing to know that she was not that person. It had taken Ron a bit longer to catch on and she could tell the redhead was similarly affected by Sirius' obvious knowledge.

His offer, though, gave her hope and a renewed determination. Sirius Black was going to teach them Occlumency, the ability to protect one's mind, so that they could be fully trusted with Harry's secret. Not that he said as much; Hermione had been able to read between the lines well enough to know that it was what he meant, however. The man was not too subtle in his implications, after all. She suspected that was because he wanted them to catch on.

They'd accepted and had gotten permission from their parents. She wasn't sure how Ron had convinced his mum or dad; her own parents had been thrilled that she had received such an offer. Her parents were always pleased when they learned how well Hermione was doing in the magical world and for someone to take an interest in ever furthering her abilities? Hermione suspected that the reasons behind it barely mattered to the enthusiastic adults. Just the fact that it made her happy was enough for them, in the end.

Hermione was pulled out of her mind with a gasp as Sirius pulled back. They had been working on her barrier for a good forty minutes already and Hermione had yet to hide her memories or to push Sirius out of her mind.

"Not bad for a beginner," Sirius told her, smiling gently. "Don't stress about it too much, it won't take long to figure out whether or not Occlumency is the way to go for you."

Hermione nodded, still panting from the effects of the spell. Her head throbbed in protest to its rough treatment, particularly behind her eyes.

"You alright, 'Mione?" Ron asked from his seat next to her. She gave him a faint smile in return. Ron nodded and prepared himself for his own attack, Sirius already raising his wand to perform the spell.

They would get this down, Hermione thought in determination as Ron hissed in pain next to her.

* * *

"Voldemort did what?!" Sirius shrieked. Grey eyes were wide in horrified disbelief and his godfather was shaking his head. Remus looked just as horrified, as well as nauseas at what Harry had told them.

"He split his soul," Harry repeated before continuing. "And we don't think he did it just the one time. The Diary soul piece was made to open the Chamber and Voldemort wouldn't have designed it like that if it was the only soul piece he had split from himself."

Sirius whimpered and placed his head into his hands. "Absolutely barmy," the man moaned into his hands as Remus moved to rub his back soothingly. The Black was white as a ghost and looked as if he was going to throw up at any moment.

Harry frowned at him, eyes narrowed. "You know something." Gabriel perked up inside their mind, curious to see where this conversation was going. If Sirius knew something, it could very well either narrow down their search for information or negate the need entirely.

Sirius sighed as he calmed himself and lifted up his head. "It's called a Horcrux and it is the darkest of magic around. The creation calls for a specific ritual to split the soul with the death of an innocent used as the catalyst to break the soul. That's all I know about them, not even my family was stupid enough to practice such magic."

_'_ _He used the death of an innocent,'_ Gabriel snarled in their head, disgusted. _'No wonder that soul piece was so twisted. To even consider something like that stains the soul and to go through with it… If we were at full power, he'd be nothing more than a smoking crater by now. Things like the soul shouldn't be meddled with in such a way.'_

Harry said nothing, agreeing completely with the Archangel. "Do you know if you have any books on the subject in any of your libraries?"

Sirius shuddered. "No idea but I know who does. Kreacher!"

The house-elf appeared with a slight pop to announce his presence. "Filthy master calls for Kreacher?" The elf glared at them all. "Filthy master keeps the presence of a filthy half-breed and a…"

Harry gave the elf a small wave, enjoying the wide gaping eyes and mouth of the house-elf. Kreacher had been too focused on Sirius when they were in Grimmauld Place and Harry hadn't seen the need to make his presence known to the elf at that point. He had been trying to keep Sirius' attention _away_ from his differences at the time and having the elf gaping as he was doing now would not have helped matters. His wings ruffled a bit under Kreacher's gaze, uncomfortable with the sudden attention.

"Filthy master keeps in the company of a celestial," the elf whispered. "Kreacher is honored to be in such a presence."

_'_ _Okay,'_ Gabriel drawled as Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise. _'Not the reaction I was expecting from the little bugger. Dobby didn't react like this.'_

'Yeah but this is Dobby we're talking about. He's always acting like he's in awe of us.' Harry pointed out, before sighing. "I would appreciate it if you didn't spread that around," he politely told the elf.

"Kreacher will keep silent, Master Celestial sir!" the elf nodded enthusiastically. "How may Kreacher be of service to Master Celestial sir?"

Sirius, the annoying bastard, was quite happily laughing his ass off. The pale nausea having diminished. Remus looked just as amused though he kept from laughing, thankfully. Harry glared at his godfather for a moment before turning back to the elf. "Kreacher, I was hoping that you might be able to tell me if the Black Libraries have some information that I require."

"Kreacher can tell Master Celestial sir. Kreacher knows all of the books that are in the Libraries, sir. Former Mistress and Master had all books moved to Grimmauld, Master Celestial sir." Kreacher told him before glaring at Sirius. "Filthy master shows no manners in front of Master Celestial sir! Filthy master is a stain to the Black Family!"

_'_ _Right, I'm still all for not getting in the middle of that.'_ Gabriel offered as Sirius and Kreacher began their favorite pastime of glaring holes in the other's skull. If either of them had the ability to kill with a glance, they'd both be dead. Harry nodded, rolling his eyes as he brought the elf's attention back to himself. "We were wondering if the Black Libraries have any books on Horcruxes."

Kreacher jerked. "Master Celestial wants books on vile objects?"

_'_ _That's one way of describing them.'_

Harry grimaced. "We need information on them in order to track down certain horcruxes."

Kreacher gave him an uncertain look, clearly still uncomfortable with the subject. Coming from an elf who thought having his head hanging on the wall of a hallway with the heads of other dead elves would be the greatest of honors, Harry figured that was saying something. "Kreacher will go retrieve the books." The elf disappeared with another pop.

"That went smashingly!" Sirius cackled from his place on the floor. "Does Master Celestial sir need something?" The man asked in a butchered parody of Kreacher's voice. _'I wonder if we can get away with turning him pink? I bet Remus would help us.'_

'Maybe later.' Harry stuck out his tongue at the man. "I hope the Hogwarts elves won't act like that," the teen groaned after a moment. "Dobby certainly doesn't."

Sirius hummed in agreement after he finally calmed down. "From what you've told me of that elf, Dobby already acts like that around 'Harry Potter sir'."

Speaking of Dobby… "Any luck on contacting Narcissa?" Harry asked. "Dobby should have had enough time to play his part by now."

Sirius nodded. "She's already gotten back to me on it. Said that she has a couple house-elves that I might be able to use. I'll be flooing to Malfoy Manor to 'inspect' them before choosing which ones I take."

Harry blinked in surprise. "She's letting you take more than one?" He hadn't expected that. The most he'd been hoping for was Dobby out of this deal. The chance to rescue similar cases from the abusive hands of Lucius Malfoy and his brat son (Harry held off judgment on Narcissa, having never met her) was already brightening his mood.

"I know, shocked me too." Sirius shrugged, ignoring the blank look Remus was giving them both. They'd yet to tell the man about their little plot with Dobby and the Malfoy's. "I was thinking of calling Dobby over and seeing which elves he thinks would appreciate escaping from the Malfoy Family's care."

_'_ _Good,'_ Gabriel agreed. His Archangel alternate was still seething about the state that Dobby was always in. _'The more that get away from those monsters, the better.'_

'Definitely.'

"Kreacher has brought Master Celestial sir his books!" Kreacher announced as he reappeared in the sitting room, books in hand. The conversation concerning Dobby ended abruptly as they all turned to inspect said books.

Harry hissed at the stain of black magic clung to the cover of the book, nearly blocking out the text completely. "Sirius, do you mind if I burn these once we're done with them?" he asked, motioning for the elf to set them on the floor.

Sirius snorted and waved a nonchalant hand. "Be my guest. The world would be better off if without books like those in existence."

Remus eyed the books with as much distaste as Harry. The werewolf could likely smell the same thing that Harry was seeing and it was obviously making the man uneasy. Kreacher moved to stand out of the way, watching with interest to see what they were going to do. Harry didn't bother ordering the elf away. He had some questions that he planned on asking the elf the first chance he got.

With a shudder, Harry flipped open the cover of the book nearest to him before snatching his hand back as the black magic staining it attempted to leach off onto him. "Bugger," Harry moaned as he shook feeling back into his suddenly numb limb. 'Those things aren't going to let me touch them, are they?'

_'_ _They probably sense our Grace,'_ Gabriel mused. _'They aren't going after Sirius or Remus and Kreacher could hold them no problem. We, though, are a threat to them and the magic tainting them must know it.'_

Gabriel was right, Harry noted. Sirius and Remus were handling the books with no problem but as soon as he moved to touch the cover again, the magic attempted to leach onto him once more.

Sirius must have noticed something off as he put down his own book to look at Harry in concern. "What's the problem?" the man asked, frowning as Harry inched away from the book warily.

"Their magic is reacting to my Grace." Harry glared at the offending book and probably would have made to set it on fire if they didn't need the information in it. Every instinct he had was screaming at him to destroy it. "The magic tries to leach onto me whenever I go to pick it up, likely a defense mechanism to keep me from getting too close so I can't destroy it."

Remus frowned and glanced down at his own book in consideration. "The magic on them is fairly strong," he admitted. "Mooney really doesn't like them either."

"Well what were you expecting?" Sirius asked them both with an odd look. "Horcruxes are vile things; information on them isn't going to be in just any old book. That book is titled 'Magic Moste Evile: Through The Ages' for a reason."

Harry glared at the book once more. The damn thing was taunting him, he just knew it. The information he needed to take down Voldemort could very well be right there in front of him and he couldn't access it!

"Don't worry about it." Remus told him. "I'll go through these books and let you know what we find. Hopefully, we'll be able to use some of this information on Voldemort's Horcruxes."

Sirius frowned at the werewolf. "What about me?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "We both know you want nothing to do with these books. Go help Ron and Hermione with their Occlumency. You're supposed to meet them at the Burrow in ten minutes, remember?"

"Bollocks!" Sirius cursed and all but ran to the Floo room.

Harry laughed at his godfather's antics. "I suppose I'll leave it to you, then."

_'_ _Not like we have much choice.'_

Remus only grunted, having gone back to reading. Harry shook his head and motioned for Kreacher to follow him and left the room.

* * *

"Master Celestial sir has another task for Kreacher?" the elf asked hopefully.

_'_ _You know, he's not all that bad when he's not cussing Sirius out.'_ Gabriel mused.

Harry ignored him and turned to Kreacher. "First off, I'd like you to call me Harry when in the presence of anyone other than Remus or Sirius." Best to get that out of the way before it became a problem.

"It will be down, Master Celestial sir." Kreacher nodded, ears flopping.

"Second, I wanted to ask you a few questions," he continued. "I'm not sure if you'll have the answers I need but I would appreciate it if you answered me with complete honesty."

"Kreacher will, sir!" the elf exclaimed. Kreacher was far more lively than he had been when he'd first 'met' him, he noted.

Harry nodded in acknowledgment, frowning as he began musing on what his first question would be.

From Sirius, Harry and Gabriel had learned that the Blacks had been avid followers of Voldemort. Apparently, Orion had gone to school with Tom Riddle, as had Walburga. Both had been supporters and Sirius' younger brother had even become a Death Eater. He'd also learned that Kreacher had been Regulus' personal elf. Purebloods often took House-elves for granted and discussed thing of sensitive nature without any care for if an elf overheard it, such as the case had been for Lucius and Dobby in second year. Harry was counting on that fact being the same with Regulus and that Kreacher might have some information that could be useful in their search.

"Sirius told me that you belonged to his brother, Regulus," Harry began. Kreacher squeaked at the name, eyes watering. "He also knows that Regulus was a Death Eater."

Harry studied the elf's watery eyes and nodded to himself. "Did Regulus ever discuss any sensitive information about Voldemort in front of you? It may not have sounded important at the time, maybe just about some trinkets Voldemort had?"

Kreacher nodded, full out sobbing now. Harry was rather alarmed about that reaction, actually. "Master Regulus said that the Dark Lord had entrusted two very important objects to Master Malfoy and Mistress Bellatrix, Master Celestial sir. Master Regulus used to wonder what importance such objects could have."

_'_ _Malfoy had the Diary,'_ Gabriel spoke up. _'No doubt that's what Regulus was talking about. Bellatrix is one of Sirius' cousins, likely she was given another Horcrux to guard.'_

'So that's two already.' Harry nodded. "Do you know what those objects were?"

"Master Regulus did not know. He only said that Mistress Bellatrix had put the object within her vault for safe keeping and that Master Lucius had hidden his within his manor." Kreacher told him, still shaking. Harry almost felt bad for asking him.

_'_ _Right, so we already destroyed the Diary. That leaves whatever Bella had in her possession.'_

Harry nodded with a smirk. "Thank you, Kreacher. If you remember anything else, I would like you to come tell me, alright?"

The elf nodded, looking conflicted. "Kreacher will."

Before Harry could address the conflict in the elf's eyes, Kreacher vanished with a pop.

'He knows something,' Harry commented with narrow eyes.

Gabriel hummed in agreement. _'Let's focus on figuring out what Bella's 'trinket' is for now. Whatever Kreacher knows, I suspect he'll come to us about it eventually.'_

Harry frowned, annoyed. It made sense in some way as Harry was getting that same feeling yet at the same time, it felt wrong to let the elf go just like that when he very well could have vital information. 'We'll focus on the Bella lead for now but if he doesn't come clean soon I'm going to force the issue.'

_'_ _Agreed.'_


	35. Chapter 35

"Come on pup, wake up already!" Sirius yelled, banging open the door to his bedroom. Havoc and Tinker chattered angrily at the noise from their little perch on top of Harry's bedframe. The two pixies had claimed the spot their first night there and Harry had rigged a makeshift bed for them, complete with small blankets the two had pulled over their heads in an effort to ignore the hyperactive animagus bouncing in the doorway.

Harry took their lead and buried himself in his blankets in a hopeless effort to go back to sleep.

Sirius rolled his eyes from the doorway. Alright, so they had been up later than usual the night before but Harry was acting like he didn't even know what today was! "Up already!" the adult declared before grabbing a hold of the blankets and pulling.

Harry whined as the warm covers disappeared from over his body. Sitting up, he glared in annoyance at his godfather. Gabriel grumbled at the movement. Harry ignored it and sighed. "Alright, already. I'm up, happy?"

Sirius beamed. "Best start getting dressed, Molly and Arthur will be here with everyone else soon enough."

Harry blinked at his godfather's back as the man left. Why would the Weasley's be coming over so early?

_'_ _Perhaps because it's July Thirty-First?'_ Gabriel suggested after a moment and Harry blinked in surprise.

'I can't believe I forgot!' Harry groaned.

_'_ _Well, we were pretty focused on the Voldemort problem last night. I think Sirius mentioned it before we went to bed.'_ Gabriel mused.

'Oh yeah.'

The night before had been another long night of listing possible objects that Voldemort could have turned into Horcruxes and places that he could have hidden the containers. Remus had finished the books on them just the day before and they had been eager to start applying that information to the megalomaniac.

Each Horcrux split the soul exactly in half with each object made, attaching each new half to a new container that then became near indestructible due to the magic used on it. There were very few things that could destroy a horcrux, and the object used had to be of some sentimental value in order for the ritual to work.

That gave them the unique problem of having to figure out what, other than the diary, Voldemort could have used to create a horcrux and where he could have hidden the objects.

They knew from Kreacher that Bellatrix Lestrange had been entrusted with a Horcrux and that it had been placed in her vault. It would be up to Sirius and the goblins to located the Horcrux inside, leaving them with an unknown number of possible Horcruxes in an infinite number of locations, much to Harry's frustration.

_'_ _Don't think too much about it,'_ Gabriel advised. _'We knew this wasn't going to be a quick fix.'_

That didn't mean that Harry didn't want to get this over with as soon as possible. It was highly doubtful the Voldemort would succeed in killing him during his next attempt but that didn't mean he couldn't harm the people around them. Sirius, Remus, the Weasley's, and Hagrid were all prime targets and everyone in Britain knew it.

_'_ _And if he tries anything, we'll skewer him on our sword and bring down the wrath of an archangel on him,'_ Gabriel pointed out viciously. _'He'll make a move around the end of the year, just like he always has, and by the end of this year we'll have some access to our Grace again.'_

'And enough control over our magic to perform some spells that we couldn't do before,' Harry mused, conveniently ignoring the problems that would come with the returned use of their Grace. It wouldn't be a lot, not in the grand scheme of things considering how much more powerful they were compared to a regular angel, yet Harry clearly remembered how things had begun going awry when they had accessed their Grace before. Each time, they had nearly died and Harry didn't have any reason to think that this time would be any different.

"Three more years," Harry mused, letting himself fall back onto his bed.

It was hard to remember that only four years ago, he'd been an innocent eleven year old with no knowledge of wizards, magic, and angels as anything other than myths. Now he was a humanized Archangel wizard with a megalomaniac after him and a potentially deadly infestation of creatures that came from a being older than even God.

_'_ _You're being rather dark today,'_ Gabriel mused in their head.

'Oh hush, I'm allowed to have an off day.' Harry shot back. Really, he was taking this whole thing rather well considering. Was it really all that surprising that sometimes things just got to him?

_'_ _Not really but you might want to perk up and get dressed. The others will definitely want to know what's wrong if you take any longer.'_

Sighing, Harry did just that before making his way down stairs.

"Happy birthday!" Remus called from the table. Sirius grinned at him from over by the stove, cooking a fresh batch of pancakes.

With a grin, Harry let all of his worries slip away.

* * *

"Come on pup, present time!" Sirius bounced giddily. Somehow, Harry thought that his godfather was more excited for his gifts than he was.

The day had been going rather well so far. The Weasley's had arrived not long after Harry had finished breakfast and Harry had spent the day hanging out with Ron, exploring the forest around them with Ginny, and playing a few pranks with Fred and George on Sirius with Percy cheerfully watching the chaos from a safe distance with Remus. It seemed that the older boy and Remus had clicked rather nicely at some point.

Harry was almost sad that the day was drawing to an end.

"Open mine first!" Sirius demanded, shoving said present into his chest. Harry raised an eyebrow at the obviously broom shaped gift before shrugging and tearing the wrapping off of the broom to reveal what was obviously a Firebolt.

During the game against Hufflepuff, Harry's Nimbus Two Thousand had taken a rather nice beating. It was only luck that the broom hadn't snapped in half during the Dementor attack and it hadn't worked quite right since. Harry had been planning on ordering a new broom before the first Quidditch game of the year to replace the old broom. It seemed that Sirius had beaten him to it and Harry grinned in thanks at his godfather. Sirius just winked at him with a secretive smile that had Harry a little on edge as he turned his attention to his next present.

He received a broom care kit from Hermione, who had noticed that his old kit was nearly used up. It was a rather nicely timed gift, Harry noted as he set it next to his new broom. He tucked her letter next to the gift with a silent promise to read it later. The brunette was spending a week with her parents in France and wouldn't be back for two more days.

Ron and Ginny had collaborated on their gifts and had gotten him a new photo album and some new film for his camera. Harry didn't know how they knew that he was running out of both but decided not to question it for the most part. He doubted that he would like the answer if he asked, judging from the grins on their faces.

Remus' gift was next and Harry laughed at the book on Martial Arts. No doubt Remus had picked out the book in order to give him and excuse for some of the different skills he had. His skills with a blade could easily be blamed on the short knife and book he had gotten for his birthday the year before but other skills that he had been practicing from his past lives, couldn't be easily explained.

Percy and the Twins, continuing on the same theme from his last birthday, had gotten him a book on Self-Defense Spells. Mrs. Weasley and Mr. Weasley had both gotten him a book on Muggle Mythology ("Please call us Molly and Arthur, dear," the motherly woman told him). Harry thanked them for the book before glancing suspiciously at Sirius, who tried to look innocent. He had a feeling that his godfather was behind the strange gift.

The last of his presents came from Bill, Charlie, Luna and, surprisingly, Cedric. Luna had sent him a painting of a man made of bright light with green and golden wings and Harry grinned at the sight. Sirius and Remus stared at the painting in shock and Harry knew that he would be explaining the gift later.

Charlie had sent him a book, The Beginner's Guide to Dragon-Taming and a letter that Harry tucked into the book and set aside. Bill had sent him a similar gift, The Beginner's Guide to Curse-Breaking with a letter of his own. Harry set this one aside as well.

Cedric's gift was a simple Practice Snitch and a small card wishing him well. Harry had stricken up a tentative friendship with the Hufflepuff the year before and he honestly was surprised to see the gift. He'd have to find thank him later, Harry thought to himself as he slipped the snitch into his pocket.

Unfortunately, the Weasley's had to leave for the night after that and Harry thanked each one of them and promised to be over the next day as usual. Once the floo died down, Harry turned to Sirius and raised his eyebrows. "A book on Muggle Mythology?" he asked.

Sirius shrugged with a grin. "Figured it would prepare them better if I started dropping clues. Ron didn't seem to catch it though." The man looked almost _depressed_ by that and Harry sighed. His godfather was a giant child. "Anyways, I have another surprise for you!"

Harry blinked at his godfather. Sirius turned towards the kitchen. "You can come in now!" he yelled.

A small pop sounded and Dobby appeared in front of him, clothed brand new robe with the Black crest on the shoulder. Another elf in the same garb appeared next to him.

"Dobby!" Harry exclaimed with a grin as the house-elf beamed at him.

"Dobby is pleased to be seeing Master Harry Potter sir!" the elf squeaked happily.

"Narcissa contacted me this morning and asked if I had time to floo over and evaluate the elves that she had pulled aside for me. Dobby and Pinky are two out of four elves that I was allowed to take." Sirius shrugged at Harry's stunned look.

"Four?"

"Surprised me too," the man nodded. "Dobby, of course, was the first elf I picked and he subtly let me know which others were…displeased with their masters. Pinky, Missy, and Mimi were all very grateful to come with me. Missy and Mimi are currently helping Kreacher clean up Grimmauld Place and Pinky and Dobby are going to be primarily helping out around here."

"Pinky is being pleased to meet the Master Harry Celestial, sir!" the elf next to Dobby squeaked. "Pinky will be keeping Master Harry Celestial sir's secret!"

Harry smiled at the elf. "It's very nice to meet you, Pinky. I would appreciate it if you and the other's referred to me as Harry when around anyone else, okay?"

Pinky nodded hurriedly before popping away. Harry blinked at the abruptness of her departure.

"Pinky being shy, Master Harry, sir!" Dobby told him happily. "She beings very happy to be workings here, sirs!"

Harry nodded at the elf, smiling. He hadn't been expecting their plan to free Dobby to happen so quickly or to end up with three extra house-elves along with his friend but Harry couldn't say that he was displeased with this turn of events.

_'_ _I'm just glad that he's out of that place,'_ Gabriel grumbled. They had never really gotten over how Dobby was treated by the Malfoy's and it stung that the elf had been forced to endure another two years of that treatment. _'I still think we should teach Lucius Malfoy a lesson.'_

Harry was hard pressed to disagree.

"Dobby came be taking Master Harry sir's things upstairs if Master Harry sir's is wanting?" Dobby asked hopefully.

"Thank you Dobby. That would be a great help." Harry told the elf. Dobby squeaked in happiness and immediately disappeared with the new objects on the floor. Harry shook his head in fondness.

This was turning out to be the best birthday he'd had.

* * *

**_Dear Harry,_ **

**_Happy Birthday! I do hope that you liked my present. I noticed that the kit I got you last year was running out and I figured that you wouldn't mind a new one. I was originally planning on getting you a book but Ron insisted that you would be getting enough of those already. Did you get any good ones? I might have to borrow them, if you did!_ **

**_France is wonderful, as always. Mum and Dad seemed to really love it here and it's nice to spend some time with them. I don't see them as much as I used to and I miss them terribly most of the time. They're always so busy with work since their practice expanded and I don't have the heart to ask them to spend more time with me. I know they would but they really love their practice and they have some many patients now…_ **

**_Oh, look on me. Rambling on with my problems on your birthday! You'll have to tell me everything you got when I get back!_ **

**_I'll see you then!_ **

**_Love, Hermione_ **

Harry smiled at the letter, a little concerned but not overly much. No doubt Hermione's parents would have more time on their hands once they got into the swing of things again. Hermione had a habit of over-thinking things and making herself needlessly worry. With a shake of his head, Harry picked up Bill's letter next.

**_Happy Birthday, Harry!_ **

**_Sorry that I couldn't make it, there was a new tomb discovered in Egypt and I was the only curse-breaking not already assigned a project. I think the goblins were purposely keeping me available in England for some reason but this job couldn't wait._ **

**_I hope you liked the book I got you! I heard that you were doing really well in Ancient Runes and I remember you showing an interest in my job during your second year. Even if Curse-Breaking doesn't turn out to be for you, it never hurts to know the basics if you end up in a tough scrape. Knowing you, Ron, and Hermione, you'll no doubt end up needing that knowledge before the year is up. I wish my school years were half as exciting as yours!_ **

**_Well, I should get back to work. We've just broken open the first chamber and I bet those over eager researcher's are going to get themselves hurt if I don't hurry it up and clear it for curses. Sometimes I think these guys would sell their souls for a little knowledge. Makes me miss the Ravenclaw's, at least that house was mostly sane!_ **

**_Bill_ **

Harry grinned and shook his head. No doubt the goblins had been keeping Bill on hand in order to appease Harry. Goblins were shrewd creatures and were no doubt trying to keep on his good side for when he finally regain full power and all his memories. No one wanted an Archangel annoyed with them. They had likely noted his closeness with Bill when Sirius had personally requested his help on warding their house and had acted from there.

Harry wasn't going to dissuade them of this notion, either. Especially since it meant they would be more inclined to keep a close eye on Bill's health than they would have if the redhead was just an ordinary curse breaker.

Picking up Charlie's letter, Harry set Bill's aside.

**_Happy Birthday!_ **

**_Hope you like the book I sent you. You'll have to let me know!_ **

**_I don't have much more to say that I won't be able to in a few weeks. The Ministry has requested help with a special project so I'm being sent back to Britain with some co-workers in a few weeks._ **

**_Don't tell the other yet, I want it to be a surprise._ **

**_See you then,_ **

**_Charlie_ **

"Wonder what project he's talking about," Harry mused aloud.

_'_ _No clue. Probably nothing to do with us.'_ Gabriel pitched in.

'Since when are we that lucky?' Harry shot back before sighing. 'I hope you're right.'

Somehow, he had a bad feeling about this.


	36. Chapter 36

Summer seemed to fly by after that, with the only notable happening being the Quidditch World Cup and the attack that had taken place there.

Harry, while having been invited to go to the cup with the Weasley's and Hermione, had turned down the opportunity. It was a full moon that night and he wasn't willing to leave Sirius alone with Remus. He didn't think that anything would happen, not really, but he had been there for the last full moon and he planned on being here for this one as well.

The Weasley family had understood, each one of them was well aware of how ragged Remus usually looked after a full moon. Molly, who wasn't the least bit interested in going, decided to stay behind as well and help the next morning. Of course, that meant that Harry would have to spend part of the night with the motherly woman but he knew that he could easily sneak out when she fell asleep. And really, that's what he ended up doing.

So while he had spent the night keeping a dog and a werewolf company with Molly sound asleep in the guest room, the rest of the Weasley family had gone to the World Cup. Out of the two groups, it was the group that went to the World Cup that had the most excitement. Molly had woken everyone with a large shriek of worry when the morning paper arrived and they had spent a good two hours waiting for any news.

Harry spent that two hours hating himself for not going along and he could only be thankful that Hermione had declined the chance to go as well, having planned a father-daughter outing with her father that day. Thankfully, no one was hurt, though they did look a bit disturbed. Apparently, the ruckus was caused by a group of partying Death Eaters that had quickly disbanded when a house-elf (Harry somehow really doubted that) had cast a Dark Mark in the sky (or more likely, had been found with the wand used to cast the mark).

The story was all over the papers by noon and Harry forgot all about Charlie's up-coming visit in the excitement.

Well, that is until Charlie showed up on their doorstep at eight in the morning, one week before September 1st.

"Charlie!" Harry greeted from his seat by the fire. Since it was getting close to the school year, Harry had decided to go over his homework and make sure that he had everything done. It was also a precaution to make sure that he hadn't put anything down that he shouldn't have, as a fourth year student, known. That was the problem of having lived multiple lives in the same world; Harry probably knew more on some subjects than some of his professors.

"Nice to see you, squirt!" Charlie grinned. "Any of my less handsome redheaded siblings around? Or are you it?"

Harry stuck his tongue out at the man before setting down his books. "They're all at the Burrow. I was going to head over there in after I was done checking over my school work."

Charlie gave him a knowing look. "Making sure you didn't miss an assignment, then? Or making sure you didn't cock up an essay?"

"Both." Harry made a face. "I'm all set when it comes to Runes, Transfiguration, Charms, and Care. It's potions that I'm mostly worried about. Snape might have backed off a little last year but I don't want to take any chances. Better to make sure he doesn't have any ammo."

"Ammo?" Charlie asked, raising his eyebrows before shaking his head. "Nah, I get what you mean. Snape's a tough bugger. Best to keep on your toes and avoid any ear-bashings."

"Exactly!" Harry pointed his quill at the older boy before sighing. "I'm going to give it a rest though. I've been sitting here for hours doing this and I still have another week…"

Charlie laughed. "Well, since you're procrastinating, why not give me the full tour before we head over to the Burrow? This is my first time here and I've been curious about this place ever since Sirius tried to recruit me."

_'For what? Stray Dragons?'_ Gabriel snorted in disbelief. Harry's face must have looked just as disbelieving, judging by Charlie's laughter.

"That's exactly how my boss looked after their conversation," Charlie grinned roguishly. "I didn't have the heart to tell him that with you, it's a valid worry."

"Oh hah hah." Harry huffed. "It was one time and it was Hagrid's fault in the first place."

_'Technically it was Voldemort's fault.'_

'Oh hush.'

Charlie shook his head with a fond smile. "That doesn't surprise me, honestly. So, shall we get this tour going?"

Harry shrugged and motioned for the second eldest Weasley son to follow him. Really, the farm house wasn't all that special and during their time living in the house, it was no longer in the pristine condition it had been once they were originally done with it. Sirius had easily made sure of that.

Despite the clutter that had appeared out of nowhere over time, Charlie seemed very impressed by the house. Harry supposed it had something to do with the fact that the redhead couldn't see magic like Harry could. Whereas the Weasley household was covered in different kinds of magic and was practically sentient, the farmhouse had very little magic aura around it. It was quite obvious that this place had belonged to a squib before them and one that was very sparse with their magical items.

That didn't mean that Harry didn't love their house, though. The fourteen year old was rather fond of the place and was particularly fond of his bedroom. Charlie seemed just as fascinated with his bedroom, though that might just be because of the sentient book, two pixies, and one owl that were taking a nap in the place.

"Geeze," Charlie commented when they got to his room. "Ron said that you were collecting a new pet per year but I thought he was just over exaggerating."

Harry, being the mature being with centuries and centuries of memories, stuck his tongue out in response.

Charlie laughed at him.

The rest of the tour went rather quickly. They didn't have enough time to get to the barn but Charlie didn't seem all that concerned about that. Charlie assured him that they could come back later to see the rest of the property but his luggage was starting to get heavy and he'd like to get to the Burrow to set it down.

_'More like he wants to be on time for dinner,'_ Gabriel snickered.

'Molly does have some awesome cooking,' Harry conceded as he stepped into the floo and called out the right name.

* * *

The Floo System hated him, Harry examined with a groan. Not as much as Apparition or Portkeys but it still had it out for the teen. 'What did I do to deserve this?' he bemoaned silently from his spot on the floor as the fireplace lit up once again to let Charlie through.

Harry's plight was quickly forgotten by the concerned Weasley's in favor of Charlie's appearance. They were far too used to Harry arriving in such a way that it was almost normal for the black haired teen to been laying on the carpet, face up at the ceiling. _'At least this method doesn't burn our wings or rip out feathers.'_

'True,' he groaned. Harry couldn't wait for the day that he could just use his wings to get anywhere instantaneously. That was sure to be a wonderful day that he wished would come sooner. He was getting really tired of being spat out of the Floo System every time he needed to get somewhere in the magical world.

"You alright?" Ginny asked, standing above him in concern. Harry gave a small nod before hefting his body off the floor with another groan.

"Just a little sore, that's all." Harry stretched out his back and sighed with the ache started to faze. "I'm starting to get used to being thrown like that."

Ginny snickered before shrugging. "I bet you can't wait until you're of age and can get your Apparition license. No more Floo or Portkeys for you!"

Harry gave her a small grin, not bothering to tell her that Apparition reacted to him the worst of all of the different methods of travel that the Wizarding World had come up with. He would need an excuse for how he was traveling when he finally got dimensional flight down, after all. Instead, he just gave her a tired smile and made his way over to the couch to plop down and watch Molly fuss over Charlie.

The rest of the day was spent mostly lounging around and chatting. Charlie was being annoyingly tight lipped about the project he had been hired on for by the Ministry, just smirking at them infuriatingly and telling them that they would find out during the return feast on September 1st. What made this even more annoying was that Arthur and Molly clearly already knew what it was that he was talking about, if Molly's clear disapproval at her sheepish husband and second eldest was any indication. Whatever this was, the motherly woman clearing didn't like it.

Harry left not long after dinner; making an excuse that he had plans with Sirius. While he loved the Weasley's, the fourteen year old did have to finish up that homework. It wouldn't be long before the school letters were sent out and the mad rush for school supplies began. _'Ugh, shopping,'_ Gabriel groaned.

Harry had to agree. Shopping had never been his favorite thing to do and he would need a lot of things this year. His trunk was on its last legs and he had grown out of his robes and his 'muggle' winter clothes were tattered beyond repair.

With a sigh, Harry moved over to his abandoned school work and picked up his Potion's essay. 'Let's get this done with,' he grunted and picked began scanning the essay for mistakes.

* * *

Sure enough, the next day during breakfast, a Hogwarts letter flew in through the opened kitchen window bearing the shopping list for the new school year. Sirius relieved the bird of the letter, feeding the owl a small piece of bacon as he handed it over to Harry.

Harry accepted the letter with a sigh.

Remus raised his eyebrows at the sound. "There something wrong? I know the end of summer holidays can be disappointing but from what I hear you love going back to the castle."

Harry grinned at the werewolf. "I do miss Hogwarts," he assured the man. "Seeing Hagrid, Hope and her foals, and everyone else is nice and classes can be interesting. I'm just not looking forward to the shopping or the new life threatening event that going back will bring. Not to mention that we need to make some headway on the Voldemort Horcrux issue."

The werewolf nodded in understanding. No doubt the ex-professor had heard of all the misadventures Harry had found himself in during his time working there the year before. Sirius, however, seemed a tad alarmed.

"I'm going to ignore that first bit and focus on the last bit," the man decided after a moment. "Look, we know that Bella placed her item in her personal vault. As her next of kin, it's possible I can convince the goblins to let me in to look for it. Especially if we tell them what we're looking for. Soul magic like that being hidden in their vaults will be like an insult to their culture. Likely one of the reason Bella hid it there. She never did get on with the goblins."

Harry hummed, nodding. "Remember not to touch it," he warned. "The dairy had a lot of defense mechanisms on it that were activated when you touched it. Since the point of the diary was to open the Chamber and go unnoticed by the staff, the magic was rather benign but that doesn't mean that the magic on the others will be."

_'Better to be safe than dead.'_ Gabriel agreed.

"I'll keep an eye on him," Remus promised. "We'll need to pick up a ward box in Diagon Alley to store it in until we have a safe way to destroy them. There's bound to be better ways than Fiendfyre and Basilisk venom."

_'We could probably work out a ritual to remove the tainted soul from the objects,'_ Gabriel mused silently. _'It would likely have to be primarily in Enochian but I'm sure that we could get the job done. As for the curse on it, we'll likely have to delve into curse-breaking or bring in Bill to get rid of them.'_

Harry paused. 'We'll work on the ritual first before worrying about that. Ideally, we'll keep Bill out of it altogether.' He wanted to keep as many people as he could out of this. Horcruxes were vile things and if he could do it completely alone, he would. Sirius and Remus were already two too many involved, even if they were capable adult wizards. "We might be able to make a ritual to do that. We'll work on it over the school year."

Remus nodded before standing up. "We should likely get ready to go. Unless you'd like to double check with the Weasley's?"

Harry shook his head. "Charlie only just arrived yesterday, they'll likely wait a couple days before going out and we need to go food shopping as well."

The two adults winced and glanced down at their half-eaten toast. They'd been putting off food shopping for a week and found out the night before that the only thing edible in the house was bread and butter. "I vote that Remus does that part," Sirius voiced.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Seeing as I'm the one doing the cooking, I might as well." A fact that drove their new house-elf housemates to tears but Remus was unwilling to give it up. Finally, they had all come to an agreement that Remus was in charge of the kitchen leaving Dobby and Pinky with the rest of the house to divide between each other as they pleased. Unfortunately, that also meant that food shopping was left up to the humans of the house. Harry suspected that Dobby had taken pity on them when it came to the bread as he couldn't remember buying it when they went shopping last. "I'm going to head out now and hopefully beat the back to school rush. Sirius, don't forget that you have Occlumency lessons after breakfast."

Sirius, likely having forgotten completely, groaned. The werewolf laughed at the man before heading up to his room to retrieve his money pouch.

"How are they doing?" Harry asked, curious.

"Hermione is definitely going to be a force to be reckoned with." Sirius informed him with a wicked grin, taking a bite out of his toast. "She had a rough patch in the beginning and I almost gave up on her. I don't know what happened after that, honestly. The next lesson we had, she managed to partially block me and she's getting better with every lesson. I'll have to right up a practice regimen later for during the school year so she doesn't fall behind; other than that, this was definitely the way to go with her. Ron, on the other hand…"

Harry grimaced, knowing that tone of voice. Sirius just shook his head. "I don't know what's wrong with him. Half the time he just barely manages to keep me out and the other half, he can't block me if his life depended on it. I think I might have to try a different form for him or just scrap this altogether and start making him an amulet instead."

"You've started them with the Absolute Defense method, right?" Harry asked, frowning. That didn't sound like Occlumency wasn't clicking with the other teen at all, just that he wasn't clicking with the current method. "Maybe you should start him on the Decoy method instead."

Sirius raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You sure he can handle that? That's one of the harder methods to learn."

Harry just smiled at the man, "Try it. You'll see."

"I'll give it a go." Sirius still didn't look convinced. Standing he stretched. "You okay going to the Alley by yourself?"

The teen gave the man a disbelieving stare. "Ignoring the fact that I spent nearly the entire summer there last year, I am capable of protecting myself if someone tries anything. I'll even take my knives if it makes you feel better."

Sirius ignored the sarcasm entirely. "See that you do," his godfather smirked at him. Harry picked up a wadded ball of parchment and chucked it at the man, who only laughed and dodged, sprinting out of the room. "Don't forget to pick up some new clothes!" he heard the man shout.

Harry rolled his eyes at the man's antics before finishing off his own meal and getting ready to leave, letter in hand. "Let's get this over with."

* * *

Harry, unfortunately, hadn't managed to avoid the school shopping hustle completely. He'd gone to Madame Malkin's first and had spent a good two hours getting a full wardrobe as the woman had insisted on it. Harry hadn't seen the point in arguing, considering his summer clothing was in just as bad shape as his winter clothing. Either way, he'd walked out of the shop into a crowded street. Harry was just glad that he'd thought to call Dobby to take his purchases home.

_'We should get a new trunk next,'_ Gabriel commented absently.

Harry nodded in agreement, pushing his way through the crowd towards the trunk shop that he knew was just down the alley a ways. It was a struggle but he managed to get into the shop without falling over, a definitely plus. Once inside, he started browsing through the different items that the shop carried before he located a trunk that would suit his purposes. It was a four compartment trunk with a key charm on it. One compartment was a library with infinite space, one was a potions compartment, one was a wardrobe, and one was for knickknacks and other such objects. Each one was magically expanded and could probably hold everything in his room if he so desired. To top it all off, there was a feather-light charm laid into the leather of the trunk itself so it wouldn't feel like he was trying to life a house once it was full.

Harry bought the trunk and paid for it to be engraved with his name. He set it up so that Dobby would come pick it up once he was done. As an afterthought, he tossed feather-light magically expanded book bag as well. He old one had a hole in the bottom.

Harry stopped at the Florish and Blotts next, picking up all his new school books. Thankfully, they were still using Ruth for Care of Magical Creatures, so Harry didn't have to pick up a new book for that class. History was still the safe as the year before as well, along with Astrology. The rest other than Runes asked for year 6th books from the same series, which were all packaged together by the store beforehand.

Runes actually required two books this year: one on Rune Linking and Activation and another on rare runic alphabets. Harry picked out both books before grabbing another on Runes in rituals and ritual writing. It never hurt to be prepared, Harry thought as he carried the purchases to the counter and paid.

Asking for the purchases to be shrunk, Harry stuffed them into his robe pockets. He could ask Remus to resize them later. Next he stocked up on parchment, ink, and quills for the school year and replenished his potions kit for the year and then some. He also purchased a few owl order packets from each shop, just in case. He wasn't sure what he was going to need for the ritual to destroy the Horcruxes, after all.

After a good hour of shopping, Harry reached his final destination at the Second Hand shop. He'd learned from the Weasley's that there was usually something good in there and he made sure to always check and see what things popped up.

Inside was a clutter of everything from books to charmed teacups. Wandering through each isle, Harry picked up a charmed fountain pen that refilled itself, a book on Magical Governments (for Hermione), a completely unopened leather journal (for Ginny), and a book on 'Mythical' Creatures.

The book was one that gave Harry pause when he leafed through it. From what he could tell, the book was on creatures that were, as of 1990, thought to entirely fictional by the magical world. While Harry thought this would be a great present for Luna, he was hesitant to give it to her as Angels were listed in the book as well. He wasn't sure if he wanted the odd girl to know what he was, especially since he was sure she didn't know Occlumency.

_'We could make her an amulet,'_ Gabriel suggested. _'And give them both to her for Christmas. I'm sure that if we explained the danger to her, she'd never take it off.'_

'We'd need to find something durable enough to make it out of and make sure that it doesn't stand out too much from what she already wears.' Harry added, still not all that sure of this plan. It would be nice, he reflected, to have someone at Hogwarts that knew what he was. He'd become accustomed to having someone who knew around and he didn't look forward to having to watch himself around everyone all year. At least this way Luna would find out from him instead of figuring it out for herself.

Grabbing the book, Harry made his way to the counter, glad to be done and ready to go home.


	37. Chapter 37

Harry found himself back on the train for his fourth year at Hogwarts sooner than he'd been expecting. He'd packed up all of his things into his new trunk the night before, taking the time to organize everything so that he'd find it easily the next morning. His homework was already packed into his new book bag, along with parchment and ink in order to save him time once he had his schedule. Ruth, Tinker and Havoc were happily snuggled into the fourth compartment of his trunk and Hedwig had flown ahead to meet them at the school.

Remus and Sirius had seen him off, along with the Weasley's, just hours before. Harry wished that the differences from the beginning of his other school years hadn't stopped there.

Instead, Harry found himself once again discussing a possibly life threatening event that was going to be taking place at the school. The Triwizard Tournament, something he'd been hopping had disappeared into history after regaining the memory of the event from one of his past lives of this Earth. The Tournament took place between the three European school: Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons. The schools would nominate one champion each and would have each champion compete in three tasks. The winner of the tournament, supposedly, would prove which school out of the three was the strongest in Europe.

The only problem was that the champions had a bad habit of dying in the increasingly dangerous tasks that they were forced to compete in once being chosen. There was no dropping out of the Tournament once named champion, either, as the magical contract was binding. Yvonne, their name in that life, hadn't been sad to see it go.

Harry felt the urge to hex whoever thought to bring the blasted thing back. _'Or make them participate,'_ Gabriel snarled. _'What is it with the government and doing monumentally stupid things?!'_

Harry wasn't the only one that felt this way as Ron and Hermione looked nauseated. It wasn't hard to figure out that one of the tasks would involve dragons, what with Charlie being hired by the Ministry. It also explained the reaction of the Weasley matriarch. Of course Molly would be against something that purposely put children in harms' way. Any sane parent would be.

"I hear that the reward money is 1000 galleons," Neville timidly informed them, having joined their compartment not too long ago, bearing the news. "And eternal glory for whoever winds."

"Eternal glory?" Hermione scoffed. "I doubt that. I bet no one even remembers who won the Tournament in the past!"

Ron hesitantly nodded with a look of longing on his face. "Bet that reward money would be nice to have," he mumbled.

"Not at the price of your life!" Harry nodded in agreement with Hermione's retort.

"C'mon mate," he nudged Ron's shoulders. "Your mum would kill you if you even thought about entering. And money certainly isn't everything."

Ron seemingly perked up, grinning. "Yeah, you're right. But we'd probably have a good go at winning it, what with everything we've done during each year. Bet you wouldn't even break a sweat if you got picked, Harry."

"Nah," the teen grimaced. "I'd like to be kept out of this, honestly. One year without something trying to kill me would be nice."

Hermione nodded, wincing at the memory of the Dementor attack the year before. Ron just snorted. "With your luck?"

Harry shoved the redhead playfully but frowned. 'Just one year...'

 _'_ _Ron's right,'_ Gabriel mumbled in their head. _'With our luck, we'll be right smack dab in the middle of it.'_

That was what he was afraid of.

* * *

The school was buzzing with talk of the Tournament and the two schools that would be arriving on October 24th, signaling the start of the Triwizard Tournament. Honestly, it was driving Harry and Hermione mad. Ron seemed happy enough speculating what the tasks would be and who the champion for Hogwarts would be.

Harry, on the other hand, was getting tired of people asking him if he was going to enter. He was also annoyed with the cancelation of Quidditch in favor for the Tournament. Being on the Quidditch team had been one of the few things that gave Harry a break from the school work or latest mystery of the year.

The rest of the House teams were just as annoyed and Harry found himself agreeing with Draco Malfoy, of all people, about how stupid this all was. Why couldn't they have just scheduled around the Tournament?

Unfortunately, that didn't change anything and Harry found himself with much more free time than he'd had in previous years. That was both a blessing and nuisance. On one hand, he had more time to begin working on that ritual, on the other hand he was bored.

Usually, he would spend time with Ron and Hermione when situations like this came up. That, however, wasn't an option as both of his friends spent most of their time working on their Occlumency. Ron had, like Harry suspected, taken to the second method much better than the first and was coming along quite nicely, easily catching up to Hermione. Neither of his friends would be ready for quite some time but that didn't seem to matter to either of them.

_'_ _At least they've both found something they can bond over together.'_

That was true. Other than their yearly mysteries, Ron and Hermione had very little in common interest wise. Hermione loved reading and applying herself academically while Ron loved chess and creating new and improved strategies. Now the two were constantly comparing notes on Occlumency and how it worked for them. Hermione was helping Ron think up new decoy memories and hidden layers in his mind while Ron was helping Hermione research different ways to re-enforce her barrier.

Which left Harry out as he couldn't really learn Occlumency. Sirius had tested him that summer and had come back with a blinding headache and no memory of what he had seen in Harry's head. Gabriel had theorized that this was due to their mindscape being that of an Archangel's, despite the fact that Harry hadn't completely merged with his Grace yet. Which meant that, even though he had adequate protection, Occulmency wasn't a subject he could learn. Human minds and Archangel minds worked too differently compared to each other for Occulmency to work for him.

So Harry filled his new free time with homework, visits to Hope and Hagrid, and exploring the castle. He would alternative between the three options depending on the mood he was in.

During the past few years, Harry had never really taken the time just to walk the halls of the school or to actively try and uncover some of the secrets hidden within the walls. The school was alight with magic, the castle itself humming and enfolding him in a comfortable embrace whenever he placed his hands on her walls. Every time his senses increased, a whole new portion of the castle revealed itself to him.

Harry found that he could spend hours just walking around with no real destination in mind. He usually used that time to brainstorm and to come up with plans. Voldemort wasn't going away and the Tournament wasn't something he could ignore so Harry really didn't lack things to plan for. He carefully ignored anything to do with the Other, knowing that he wasn't nearly ready to start making plans for that problem yet.

There were also times when Luna joined him on these trips, pleased to have some company herself when she roamed the halls. Ginny never seemed interested in discovering all the secrets of Hogwarts, not since the disaster of her first year. Harry supposed that he couldn't blame her for that.

So far they hadn't found anything truly interesting yet though they had discovered the entrances to both the kitchen and the Hufflepuff dorms. Harry found it interesting that the Hufflepuff dorm room was by the kitchen and not by the Gryffindor dorm like the rumor mill claimed it was. No doubt the Hufflepuff's were having a good laugh at the rest of the school.

Today, however, Harry was on his way to visit Hope and her now fully grown children.

Sol's once white, gold spotted pelt had melded together into a solid, shinning gold that shimmered in the sunlight. The unicorn preened as Harry complemented his new look, strutting around and showing off. Celestica was still a beautiful pure white while Mystica now had a purple shimmer to her coat that hadn't been there before. Hope, just as white as the day that Harry had met her, watched her grown foals with pride.

"You're all so big now!" Harry grinned at them all. It never stopped amazing him at how fast the foals had grown. While it had been two years since they were first born, a long time for an animal to remain adolescents, Harry still couldn't help but think of the three as the small foals he had first met. It wouldn't be long before the three found their own mates and sired their own children.

The thought made him grin and saddened him at the same time. It was only three more years after this year until Harry left Hogwarts and he wouldn't be able to visit the unicorn family as much as he was used to.

 _'_ _We'll just have to set time aside for whenever we want to visit,'_ Gabriel hummed. _'We'll have full use of our wings by then.'_

Harry didn't comment on that, preferring to focus all his attention on Sol as the unicorn began nudging him in an attempt to start a game of tag. With a laugh, Harry jumped at the golden unicorn and the game began. Best not to worry about such things now, Harry thought as he ran after the fleeing Sol.

* * *

Classes, Harry found, were a lot different than the year before. They were actively moving further away from the beginning theory in all of the core classes and towards the more advanced stuff. A lot of this, Harry found he knew from his past lives on this Earth, meaning that classes were getting rather boring. Out of all of his classes, Harry found that Care, Runes, and Potions were quickly becoming his favorites.

While it wasn't all that odd for Runes and Care to take the top of his favorite classes list, Potions had been unexpected. Snape was still on probation from last year and seemed to decide that if he wanted things to return to normal, he would need to actually _teach_ them. No more slamming a recipe on the board and telling them to brew it. The man was actually going into the theory behind _why_ they stirred a certain way and how certain plants reacted with each other. As the youngest Potion's Master in history, Snape was an authority on how the subject worked.

There were still snide comments and the man was always scowling, but Harry found that he was enjoying the class more than he ever had before. There was also the added bonus of less cauldrons exploding. Harry was rather surprised by that little fact. It seemed that speaking in terms of plants and such had made the subject finally click for one Neville Longbottom, who was the main culprit of exploding potions.

About halfway through the second week of school, Harry's new schedule was interrupted with a letter from Sirius.

**_Dear Pup,_ **

**_I talked to the goblins about that thing we were after. I can't say much here, not secure enough. I've included a present for you in the package. Call my name out and we'll be able to talk._ **

**_From,_ **

**_Sirius_ **

Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise and picked up the package that did indeed hold a mirror. The small mirror was obviously magical in nature, he could see that quite clearly.

 _'_ _Interesting,'_ Gabriel piqued up.

Glancing around, Harry slid the mirror into his pocket and slipped out of the Great Hall. He had a free period so Harry made his way up to his dorm. Thankfully, Harry was one of the few Gryffindors with a free period in their year and Ron was off with Hermione practicing. Sure enough, when he got to his dorm room it was completely empty.

Harry slid onto his bed and pulled the blinds closed, sealing them with a sticking charm before casting a muffling charm around him, as well as a privacy ward. Picking up the mirror, Harry studied it for a minute. "Sirius Black."

The surface brightened before fading away until Harry had a perfect view of his godfather's face. "I was hoping you would call soon," the man grinned toothily. "Shouldn't you be in class, though?"

Harry blinked before shrugging. "I had a free period and I was curious. I haven't seen a mirror like this before."

"Well, that because James, Remus, and I invented them." Sirius told him, smug. "We used to use them to talk during detention. It always drove our professor's insane, trying to figure out how we were doing it."

Harry shook his head while Gabriel snorted. "You said you met with the goblins?"

Sirius' face turned serious, all humor melting off. "I did. They were not pleased to learn that a Horcrux was in their bank, let me tell you. Bella's entire vault was confiscated and searched. Thankfully, we found the Horcrux. Unfortunately, it's Hufflepuff's cup."

Harry froze, eyes wide. "He didn't," the teen hissed, catching onto what Sirius was saying.

"He did," Sirius grimaced. "I have no doubt the rest of the Horcruxes are from the other founders. Ravenclaw's Diadem is supposed to be lost forever but I wouldn't put it past that maniac to have found it and used it in his ritual. Slytherin's Locket must be one as well. I'm not sure about Gryffindor's Sword, though."

 _'_ _The sword is definitely not one,'_ Gabriel added. _'We would have sensed that during the battle with the Basilisk.'_

Harry relayed this to Sirius before groaning. "We're going to have to search the Chamber, just to make sure there isn't another one hiding down there."

They hadn't been in the Chamber since their second year. The whole place was covered in debris and water, there was no telling how safe it was after so long without upkeep. It was a miracle that nothing had collapsed on them when they went down the first time.

"Better you than me, pup." Sirius shuddered. "I've put the cup in the box that I picked up. That thing is fowl, I'll tell you that much. The goblin's even refused to touch it."

"I don't blame them," Harry sighed. "What did they do with the rest of the vault contents?"

"Destroyed all the dangerous objects and slit the money between the bank and the Black vault," the man sounded bemused by this. "I honestly expected them to just keep it all, really. I guess they were grateful that I brought this to their attention. Soul magic is just as taboo to them as it is to us, turns out."

"Not surprising," Harry muttered before speaking up. "I have to go, Rune's starts in ten minutes and I'm in the Gryffindor dorm."

Sirius nodded. "I'll let Remus know you called. Let us know if you find anything in the Chamber, okay pup?"

Harry nodded and the mirror faded back into a reflective surface. Harry stuffed the small object under his pillow before grabbing his bag. Cancelling the spells he'd put up, Harry darted out of the dorm and into the common room. As he walked, Harry considered what they now knew.

Voldemort had made at least three Horcruxes; the diary, the cup, and the locket. The diadem was still up for debate, really. Either way, three was a magically powerful number and somehow, Harry really doubted the man would have stopped there. Voldemort's soul was far to corrupt to have stopped there. Looking back on his memory of their meeting in first year told Harry that.

The next magically powered number was seven, Harry mused silently. It would be idiocy to go any higher than that. Which meant that they had a good idea of how many the madman had made now.

_'_ _That'll sure make this easier.'_

Harry agreed. They were finally getting somewhere.

* * *

Kreacher the house-elf held up a golden locket to the light, making sure that the object was out of view if another of the new elves happened upon him.

When Master Regulus had asked him to destroy the object so long ago, Kreacher had been determined to see it done no matter what. The Master had died for this thing to be destroyed. Now, Kreacher had failed in fulfilling this last wish of his master and he had been slowly driving himself mad trying.

Nothing had worked and only two years before, Kreacher had given up completely and had been waiting to die ever since. Then the new Lord had arrived. With him, Sirius Black had brought the answer to Kreacher's problem.

Master Celestial could destroy the fowl object, was actively looking for all of these trinkets in order to rid the world of the fowl Lord Master that had left Kreacher to die.

All Kreacher had to do was take the locket to the Master Celestial and he would finally see it destroyed. Yet, Kreacher was hesitant to do so. Master had told _Kreacher_ to destroy the thing. What would Master think, to know Kreacher had been forced to rely on another to see it done? Would Master be angry at him?

Kreacher didn't know and it bothered the house-elf. He just did not know what to do. So he debated with himself, muttering underneath his breath as he looked at his master's last request with disdain.

What was he to do?


	38. Chapter 38

Harry didn't find his chance to explore the Chamber for another three weeks. He couldn't tell Ron or Hermione what he was doing and he didn't want Luna anywhere near one of those fowl things, so Harry was forced to wait until all of his friends were busy before he could make his way down to the Chamber. Thankfully, the second floor bathroom was empty when Harry slipped inside.

Opening the sink, Harry cast an overpowered cleaning charm down the shaft. With a deep breath, Harry hissed, _"Close."_ Then he jumped, the pipe sealing above him as he slid downwards.

Landing on the bones of dead animals, Harry sighed at the horrid state the Chamber was in. Now that he wasn't distracted, Harry could see what the Chamber had once been even better than he had before. Casting a cleaning charm at the walls, Harry wasn't surprised to see Runes etched along them.

_'_ _It's almost sad to see it like this,'_ Gabriel sighed. _'I bet that it was magnificent when it was first built.'_

Harry nodded, eyeing the rotting benches with distaste. Clearing a path through the bones, Harry started walking towards the main chamber.

It didn't take him long to reach it and Harry was greeted with the sight of a rotting Basilisk corpse. The once great beast was slowly becoming nothing but bones, its flesh dissolving into nothing as the venom that once protected it broke the body down. It was almost a pity, Harry thought with a grimace. The Basilisk hadn't truly been the enemy and Harry felt a bit guilty that he'd been forced to kill it. He didn't regret it though.

"Accio Tom Riddle's things," Harry called out, half hoping that the spell would work. He wasn't all that surprised when nothing happened and let out a groan. "This is going to take a while."

_'_ _I suggest we start with the statue,'_ Gabriel offered.

With another groan, Harry got to work. The Chamber was big, however, and the water blocked off most of the Chamber, making it impossible to search those areas. After two hours of searching, Harry finally acknowledged that if he was going to find anything, he was going to have to clear the flooded areas as well as patching up the leaks that allowed the water in at all.

It was a good thing that he didn't have class today, Harry thought with annoyance as trudged through water towards the wall on the left of the Chamber entrance. He could hear the small flow of water coming from this direction.

Harry shrieked as he stepped forward and found himself standing on nothing for a split second before he went under. Stinking quite a distance, Harry began kicking his legs and swam up towards the surface. Coughing as his head broke the surface, Harry shook the water out of his eyes. Somewhere along the way, he'd lost his glasses. While he didn't really need the spectacles, it would be rather noticeable if he started walking around without them.

_'_ _Maybe we should start pretending to wear contacts,'_ Gabriel suggested. _'Or we could go to the Hospital Wing, say we lost our glasses, and see about getting a replacement pair.'_

Harry sighed and began swimming towards the wall. 'We'll have to do the second. People would wonder why we didn't start the year with contacts if we went that route. It'll be a problem if she decides to check our eyesight, though. I don't want to have to try and explain why we can see perfectly all of a sudden.'

Gabriel didn't respond so Harry went back to focusing on his swimming. He really wished that he had thought to check the depth of the water before deciding to go in fully dressed. Robes did not make it easy to do this.

Finally, Harry reached the wall and was surprised to find that the water he'd been hearing was coming from a large pipe. It made sense, Harry mused. Slytherin likely had created the pipes running through the castle as a path for the Basilisk to move around. Grabbing a hold of the bottom, Harry heaved himself into the pipe and out of the water. There flow in the pipe wasn't nearly as strong as Harry had first thought and the teen took a moment to catch his breath.

_'_ _I bet we can follow this to the source,'_ Gabriel hummed.

"Let's just get this over with," Harry grumbled. "I can't wait to get out of these clothes."

Standing, Harry started following the pipe. It didn't take long to find the leak, thankfully. Looking at the top of the pipe, Harry grabbed his wand. Focusing on his magic, he slowly pushed the power through his wand as he conjure a small piece of rock to replace the missing piece. It was harder than Harry expected and by the time he was done, the teen was exhausted.

_'_ _Guess we still have a ways to go with our magical growth.'_

Harry nodded and with a hiss of pain, he hefted the rock into the gap, slowly sealing it into place. Once he was done, the leak looked as if it had never been there. "One down, numerous more to go," Harry sighed. "Yippee."

Harry spent a good four more hours tracking down each and every leak and sealing them up. It would have likely taken longer if Harry hadn't remembered to use the point me spell after the second leak had been fixed. By the time he was done, the teen was absolutely exhausted and was quite ready to go crash in bed.

"We'll deal with the water another day," Harry decided after remembering his missing glasses. With one final glance around, Harry cast a cleaning and drying charm before leaving the Chamber all together.

* * *

Madame Pomfrey was not pleased in the least to see him. "Already?" she'd asked with a resigned look. It took Harry a good ten minutes to explain what he needed and by the time he was done, the nurse was muttering to herself under her breath. Harry supposed that had something to do with his vagueness on how the glasses had gone missing in the first place.

Unfortunately, the nurse insisted on checking his eyes to find the right prescription. To say she was surprised to find that they were perfectly healthy was a surprise.

Harry spent a good half hour denying that he was aware of the change, claiming that he barely ever took his glasses off and had just assumed that he was seeing the same as always. Then she demanded to know how he had come to be wearing glasses in the first place. Harry didn't bother lying, explaining the trip to the school nurse and how his aunt had just shown up with the glasses in tow one day.

Pomfrey had been more than a tad upset at that and Harry almost felt guilty even though he knew he wasn't exactly lying to her. Petunia _had_ just come home with glasses one day and Harry knew that he'd never had the right prescription in the first place. Sure, he had actually needed them at one point but it would be hard to explain to the nurse why he no longer needed them at all.

Madame Pomfrey finally came to the conclusion that he'd never needed them in the first place and sent him off after assuring him she'd let all the other teachers know of the change.

That left Harry with the task of explaining to everyone else why he was no longer wearing the horrid things. Hermione, of course, was livid on his behalf and Ron look just as upset. Fred and George just kept quiet about the change, which actually alarmed the teen. Thankfully, the twins took it upon themselves to inform everyone else so Harry hadn't been forced to explain the entire thing too many times.

Sirius thought this was rather funny, unsurprisingly enough. The dog animagus was of the opinion that the Dursley's deserved the negative attention and Harry couldn't really disagree. It was nice not having to worry about the things every day, though.

Life went on and the subject of his eyesight was slowly forgotten in favor of the Triwizard Tournament and the quirks of Professor Moody.

Harry found that he didn't like the new defense Professor. The man was unhinged and seemed to have an odd fascination with watching him all the time. Harry had the annoying feeling that the man was stalking him.

There was also the fact that his soul was dark and twisted. Just looking at it made Harry's skin crawl. Gabriel was all for keeping their distance from the man, making the class one of his least favorites. He didn't know why Dumbledore was friends with this man but Harry didn't like him one bit.

That was the general consensus, actually. The ex-auror just gave everyone a bad feeling. It was one of the few things that everyone in the school could agree on. His constant warnings of 'Constant Vigilance!' made him the most unpopular professor in school. Even Snape was more liked than Moody.

Harry made constant trips into the Chamber after the first night. He and Gabriel had devised a set of runes to begin evaporating the water and they needed to be recharge every day until the small lake that had taken over the Chamber was gone.

Harry didn't know why he was going through all this trouble. Something told him, however, that the Chamber was going to be needed again, perhaps soon. Gabriel seemed to agree with his gut feeling as well, so Harry made it his pet project to get the Chamber fixed up properly. Eventually, Harry even let Luna come down with him to help, after the girl had asked him if she could.

Harry thought about telling the others and seeing if they wanted to help. He thought better of it, though. Ginny would likely never consent to coming down into the Chamber again and he doubted Ron would be any better. Hermione might consider it yet he didn't really want to pull her away from her studies. He also didn't want to explain why he was able to use such advanced magic just yet.

Once the place was cleared of water and the basilisk corpse had been fully broken down with the help of some runes, Harry began working on fixing up the walls and statues. Luna was quite happy to begin clearing out the bones in the entry way.

Harry was also fairly sure that there weren't any Horcruxes in the Chamber at that point as well. While he had found numerous little rooms that had been hidden by the water, there was no way Tom Riddle had been able to access them. That water had been there a least a century, maybe more judging from how old the objects in those rooms were.

Mostly, he found quite a few tomes and journals, all of them belonging to Slytherin himself if the language they were written in was an indication. Harry could read Olde English perfectly, of course, but the language hadn't been used in quite a long time. Harry planned of giving the tomes and journals to the Headmaster, eventually. They belonged to the school, after all.

As Harry and Luna worked, time seemed to fly by. September changed into October and the school seemed to become louder and louder as it almost became time for the other schools to arrive.

Harry found that the closer it came to the day of their arrival, the more his instincts screamed at him that something horrible was going to happen. He didn't know what that horrible thing was but it would happen soon.

Finally, the day of the arrival of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang came and Harry's instincts were on high alert. Enough so that he skipped the feast welcoming the schools and hid in the dorm room, playing sick. Ron and Hermione promised to bring him back something from the feast before leaving him to his bed where Harry spent a good portion of the time trying to figure out why he was reacting this way.

_'_ _I think it's our Grace,'_ Gabriel sighed. _'It sensing something wrong, likely a someone who's a threat to us and it's trying to warn us. If we had more access, I could probably pinpoint who it was sensing.'_

'So we can't do anything,' Harry summarized.

_'_ _Exactly.'_

That did not make him feel any better. Flopping backwards on his bed, Harry wondered what death threat this year would throw his way. 'I just wanted one year,' the teen bemoaned.

His luck was never that good.

* * *

Harry went to visit Hagrid the next day. He hadn't seen the half giant all that much this year and he found himself missing talking to the man.

"Hiya, 'Arry!" Hagrid called, noticing him making his way towards the hut. The half giant was feeding a pristine white winged horse while talking to a rather large woman, who managed to reach Hagrid in size.

"'o is this?" the woman asked in a clear French accent.

"Madame Maxime, this is 'Arry Potter!" Hagrid introduced. "'Arry here is a right natural 'ith creatures!"

Maxime gave Harry a curious once over. "I am pleased to meet you, 'Arry Potter. I 'ave heard most 'onderous thing of you."

Harry gave her a polite smile and greeted her as well. He shot Hagrid and knowing look after catching the man gazing longingly at the woman. She was obviously another half giant, just by her size. Harry wondered if she was from one of the schools that had arrived the night before but didn't dare ask. He didn't want to be forced to come up with a reason why he hadn't been at the feast the night before.

"Is Hope around?" He asked Hagrid. "I was hoping to spend time with her and the others. It's been a while since I've seen them."

This was certainly true. Harry hadn't been to see them since he'd started on the Chamber project. It wasn't the original reason he'd come down to see Hagrid, though. Judging from the look on the Keeper of the Key's face, Hagrid was much more interested in spending time with Madame Maxime at the moment.

"Ah saw 'er just a bit ago," Hagrid told him. "Was headin' back toward the 'erd. 'Ou remember the way?"

Harry grinned. "I remember. I'll see you later Hagrid."

Hagrid gave him a grateful look before beginning to strike up conversation with Maxime as Harry walked away. He could hear the woman asking about who 'Hope' was as he entered the forest and their voices faded away.

Harry had been to see the unicorn herd a few times before and knew exactly where they spent most of their time, so he began to head right there. One of the nice things about his tree having landed in this forest was that none of the residents were willing to mess with him. Even the centaurs tolerated his presence, despite his appearance being mostly that of a human. Hagrid had noticed the ease that the residents had with him a long time ago and had been more than happy to let Harry wander the forest alone ever since.

Hagrid had also taken to asking Harry how certain creatures would go over with his classmates before bringing them into class. Harry had only just barely managed to talk Hagrid out of bringing an Arcnomantula into class one day. That would have been a disaster and Harry still shudder when he thought of the possible mayhem that would have brought.

This year they would be working with Blast-End Skrewts. Harry was still trying to talk the man out of it with little success and was nearly resided to having to deal with the horrid creatures. He'd seen a few in the forest before and Harry could definitely say that they were not cute.

Harry paused as a familiar form began to trot towards him. The hippogriff shrieked softly in greeting and Harry grinned. "Nice to see you too Buckbeak. I'm headed over to see the unicorn herd, want to come?"

The hippogriff pawed the ground in answer and moved to walk beside him. While Buckbeak no longer tried to follow him to the castle during Care anymore, he was still rather fond of Harry. It was a normal occurrence to have Buckbeak appear next to him in the middle of Care and follow him around the rest of the class.

It was only a few more minutes before they arrived at the herd. Harry's entrance caused a few of the newer unicorns to look up curiously but for the most part, none of the unicorns were bothered by his appearance.

A happy whinny came from Harry's left and Sol appeared from behind a few of the other, coming towards Harry at full speed. Buckbeak clutched his beak in amusement as the Harry dodged the unicorns approach when Sol failed to slow down. "You silly thing," he informed the golden unicorn as Sol's horn caught the branch of a tree before he could slow.

Sol gave him a pathetic stare and huffed as he tried to pull his horn away from the offending branch with no success. Harry snorted and moved to help him.

"It's a wonder how you manage to do these things," Harry laughed as the branch finally gave way. "What are you going to do if no one's around to help you next time?"

Sol just snorted and nibbled at Harry's hair. It was a habit he had picked up from Hope, though he was the only one of the three to pick it up, thankfully. "Up for a game?" he asked.

Sol perked right up and Harry was off. It wasn't often that Sol got to be 'it' and it took a moment for realization to sink in before Sol took off in pursuit.

Harry managed to kill a good few hours playing tag with Buckbeak, the cheater, winning most of the games. Harry wasn't even sure when the hippogriff had joined the game.

Eventually, though, they all grew tired and called an end to the game. Exhausted, Harry plopped down on grass next to the tired unicorn and hippogriff. Eventually, Mystica and Celestica joined them, obviously amused by their antics before.

"Oh hush, you used to be just as silly," Harry stuck his tongue out at them. Celestica just snorted at him while Mystica seemed to concede the point. "Best be getting back to the castle, though."

Sol gave a protesting whine and Buckbeak seemed just as against this. Harry laughed at them. "You both know that I can't stay out all night. And you definitely cannot come with!" He didn't want to think about the ruckus _that_ would cause.

After another few minutes of rest, Harry heaved himself up and began the walk back to the castle. While it wasn't how he originally planned to spend the evening, Harry found that he didn't mind at all. The outing had managed to push back Harry's worries to the back of his mind and the teen felt more relaxed than he had in a while.

Harry might not know what was going to happen but he would handle it when the time came. He was sure of it.


	39. Chapter 39

Harry was not prepared for what happened. Really, he was completely caught off guard because it honestly hadn't occurred to him.

Being selected as a Champion, that he had suspected. Being selected as a _fourth_ champion was what had caught him off guard. The magic of the Goblet should have prevented that from happening as it was spelled to only ever choose three champions. To circumvent that, after centuries had passed from the original casting, would have taken a lot of advanced magic on the runes and spells from that time period.

That wasn't something that the average wizard could do and definitely not something that would be easy to keep unnoticed. Whoever had done this was _good_ , insanely so and they definitely wanted Harry in this Tournament enough not to leave anything to chance. They had even used a piece of parchment with his signature on it which was really impressive. How had they even gotten that?

' _I told you our luck wasn't good enough to keep us out of this,'_ Gabriel grumbled in their mind.

'Shut up,' Harry grumbled back as he slowly made his way to the room where the others were. Dumbledore followed behind him, seemingly just as stunned as the rest of the hall.

Cedric was the first to notice them enter, blinking at Harry in concern. "Do they need us back in the Great Hall?"

"I wish," Harry muttered. He didn't bother to lower his voice enough that the others couldn't hear. "The bloody Goblet is defective."

Fleur Delacour and Victor Krum gave him confused looks, mirrored on the faces of their school heads. Harry was only mildly surprised to know that a half-giant like Madame Maxime was the Headmistress of a rival school. It really wasn't all that important at the moment.

Cedric, however, easily put the pieces together from his past knowledge of Harry's previous years of Hogwarts. It was common knowledge that if anything unusual happened in the school, Harry was usually in the thick of it. "Just what happened?" the Hufflepuff asked cautiously.

Harry gave him a dry look. He was about to reply when Dumbledore answered.

"Mr. Potter has become an unprecedented fourth champion." Even the Headmaster looked resigned at this point. Likely because he was going to have to explain this to Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Molly Weasley. Harry didn't envy him.

"Vhat?!" Fleur spoke up, indignant. "Zis leettle boy is a Champion?!"

Her Headmistress looked just as indignant. "How 'ould zis 'appen? Surely thee boy cannot compete! 'E is to 'oung!"

' _Hah,'_ Gabriel snorted. _'We're literally older than dirt! If anything, you're the young one!'_

Harry ignored the comment in favor of giving Cedric a long suffering look. The other teen winced as the argument began to rise in volume. Thankfully, Dumbledore managed to interrupt them all before it could dissolve into blows. 'The Durmstrang Headmaster was practically foaming at the mouth by this point' Harry grumbled internally.

"It does not matter how it happened. The fact of the matter is that Harry is now magically obligated to compete!" Dumbledore shouted. "All the same, it would be impossible for him to have done this. Unless you think that a mere fourth year student could tamper with the centuries old magic that enchants the Goblet with no one the wiser?"

There was silence. Harry carefully kept the fact that he could, in fact, tamper with the Goblet and keep from getting caught given enough will power and time to study the spells enchanting it. The teen didn't think that would help his case any even if he added in the fact that it would take him more than a week to do. There were a lot of potential spells in his memories that could have been used and he wasn't familiar enough with all the different ways that runes could be manipulated in this world.

' _Best keep that to ourselves,'_ Gabriel agreed.

After a few more minutes of arguing, Harry and the other champions were dismissed. While Fleur and Krum ignored him as they exited the room, Cedric sidled up next to him. "You really can't catch a break can you?" the Hufflepuff asked.

Harry just looked at him. "You have no idea."

* * *

Ron was waiting for him when Harry entered the dorm.

"You didn't enter your name, did you?" his best friend asked quietly. "I know you weren't interested in competing and you've been practically running away from any mention of the Tournament…"

Harry grimaced. "No, I didn't. I was kinda hoping for a year without death threats. There's becoming a consistent pattern to this and I don't like it. Maybe we should just ban Halloween altogether."

Ron cracked a small grin at him. "I don't think Halloween is your problem mate. The Dementor attack wasn't on Halloween."

Harry shrugged. "I'm going to just blame Halloween."

Ron laughed before becoming serious. "Seriously mate, what are you going to do? Can't you just refuse to compete?"

' _We wish.'_

"No. It's magically binding." Harry groaned and plopped down onto his own bed. He regretted ever getting up this morning. He could have had an extra day ignoring the Tournament completely if he had. This was becoming ridiculous. School wasn't supposed to be this dangerous and stressful. He should know, he'd gone to Hogwarts before. What was it that had painted a giant target on his back, anyways?

"Mum's going to be furious." Ron shuddered.

"So are Sirius and Remus," Harry added. "I can't decide if I want to see that unholy alliance or not."

Ron shuddered again. "I don't want to be Dumbledore or the Ministry right now. Mum's scary enough of her own."

* * *

In the end, Harry didn't get to see Molly, Sirius, and Remus tear both the Ministry and Dumbledore a new one. Those that did, however, were more than willing to relay the spectacle to him after the fact.

They were definitely not happy and were even less so when it became apparent that everyone was trying to pin the blame on Harry. While they couldn't do anything about the student body, the three easily frightened the newspapers enough that they didn't dare try to point their finger at Harry as the culprit.

That didn't bother Harry all that much, if he was being honest. The press in the Wizarding World had never been reliable, in any life. So Harry contented himself with being labeled as the 'unfortunate fourth champion forced to compete' and having it be left at that. He didn't want to consider the spectacle that would have occurred if he hadn't had Sirius and Molly on his side.

The rest of the school didn't buy it.

It was actually shocking, how quickly the school had banded together in their contempt for Harry. The Hufflepuffs were upset at having the spot light taken from Cedric, who actually did believe that Harry hadn't put his own name in or that he could have messed with a magical artifact enough to be chosen no matter what. The Slytherins didn't really need a reason to hate a Gryffindor. Harry didn't even know what the Ravenclaws were upset over but they were just as upset as the rest of the school.

Only Gryffindor seemed to be on his side, though some of his house clearly thought that he had done it though they kept quiet on their beliefs. Most of his house wasn't so deluded.

Fred and George had made it their personal mission to protect him from anything that the other houses sent his way. The rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team ran interference whenever the other houses tried to corner the raven haired teen in the corridors. Ron and Hermione were almost always by his side now, keeping an eye out of any potential dangers. Ginny was working with Colin and some others in a rather futile attempt to convince people to see reason.

Harry appreciated the thought, he really did. It was touching that everyone was going through so much trouble to help him out. At the same time, they were driving Harry crazy.

The only person in the school that didn't seem to care one way or another about the Tournament or Harry's involvement (whether to scorn him or defend him) was Luna and Harry found himself seeking the girl out just to get away from the crazy that was infecting the rest of the school.

' _We're not even three days in and this is already getting way out of control,'_ Gabriel observed.

'And we've got less than a month to figure out what to do for the first task,' Harry added, groaning. The first task, according to what Harry had been told that first night, would be held on the 24th of November. Twenty-one days from now and Harry only had a vague idea of what he would be doing. Or more accurately, what would be involved: Dragons.

The second day, when it became common knowledge that he'd been chosen as a fourth champion, Charlie had sent him a frantic letter.

_**Harry,** _

_**I don't know how or why you're in this but be careful. I haven't been told much of the first task just that they needed a few nesting mother's for it.** _

_**Whatever you do, be careful around them. Nesting mother's are some of the most dangerous dragons there are, no matter the breed. Use those books I got you. I'm not really supposed to be telling you this much, so I can't help you any from here on.** _

_**Charlie** _

The people at the Ministry were trying to kill them, he had decided. It took at least five fully trained dragon handlers to subdue a regular dragon, let alone a nesting mother! If Harry had been going into this with only the knowledge of a regular fourth year student, he wouldn't have lasted five minutes in there, not by himself.

Which was likely the point, he thought angrily. Whoever had orchestrated this wanted Harry dead or was testing him and it didn't take much to figure out who was behind it.

How Voldemort had gotten into the school to do this, Harry wasn't sure. At the same time, Voldemort was the only wizard out there who benefitted from this. If Harry died, well that wouldn't upset the wraith all that much and Harry would almost have preferred if this was only about his death.

Yet if Voldemort was really serious about trying to kill him, he could have used a much different method that would have required less effort than entering him into this Tournament. No, Voldemort wanted something from him, something that he could get by having Harry competing in this Tournament.

The worst part of it all was that Harry didn't know what the wraith could gain from this. What was so important about the Tournament that he _needed_ Harry to compete?

Neither Gabriel nor Harry knew nor did Sirius when Harry had used the mirror to fill in his godfather on their theory.

"Whatever it is that monster wants, we need to keep it from happening," the man snarled once Harry had finished explaining.

"I agree." Harry narrowed his eyes before rubbing his temples. "I doubt that he's caught on to our knowledge of his Horcruxes. Whatever it is that he's doing, it has nothing to do with our hunt. He's got something up his sleeve and that rat is likely helping him."

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure? Peter isn't all that bright or magically powerful, not like he'd need to be in order to mess with the Goblet like he did."

Harry just shook his head. "I know. Someone else did that but whoever it is would have needed that rat's knowledge of how to get inside to do it. That's the only theory I can come up with that makes sense."

Sirius sighed and rubbed his temples. "Pup, you've really stepped into it this time. Alright, you just worry about the tasks, Remus and I will start digging into the people who had access to the Goblet. In the meantime, keep an eye out for anyone who stands out. Don't go anywhere alone. Archangel or not, keep your head down. You're going to want every advantage you can get so try not to reveal all your cards in the first task."

Harry grimaced but conceded that his godfather might have a point. They didn't need Voldemort to know that Harry wasn't exactly what he seemed to be and it was more than likely that someone in the castle was spying on him. "Alright, you know, I was kind of hoping that this would be a death threat free year."

"With your luck?" Sirius snorted. "I would be surprised if this was the only thing you've got to deal with this year."

Harry groaned. "Thanks Sirius."

His godfather laughed. "Anytime, pup."

* * *

Remus Lupin watched Sirius and Harry talk from a distance, his eyes glowing a dangerous amber.

When they had first found out that Harry had been chosen as a fourth champion, Sirius had blown a gasket. Remus had never seen his friend so angry before and the werewolf could honestly say that he wasn't in any better of a state.

It didn't matter that Harry was a powerful Archangel and likely knew more about the Wizarding World than even Dumbledore. He was still that little baby they had held and played with. That didn't change when Harry had touched that tree in his first year nor had it changed when Remus had first started suspecting that something was off with him the year before. It definitely hadn't changed when he had learned what Harry actually was.

Through it all, he was still Harry. And someone was trying to harm _Harry._

That just didn't sit well with him.

Everything in him screamed that his cub was in danger and to go remove the threat immediately. If not for the fact that Remus knew it wouldn't do any good, he likely would have listened. It would do to remind the wizards just how bad an idea it was to mess with a werewolf's cub. His lip curled up into a snarl just thinking about it.

He supposed he would just have to be content with the knowledge that he had reminded the Hogwarts staff of this fact.

Dumbledore had been smart in making sure that he wasn't alone when he had called them to the school Halloween night. He probably should have made sure that they knew not to bring anyone along with them, though. Molly Weasley was a formidable woman to have on your side and not someone you wanted against you.

Combined with Sirius, Remus hadn't even needed to say anything after the two were done yelling at the Headmaster and staff of Hogwarts. Instead, he took to watching the visiting staff from the other schools. Madame Maxime looked almost amused by Dumbledore's plight, as well as approving. The French had always been strict about child safety.

Karkaroff, however, was sneering and disdainful and had made the mistake of trying to blame _Harry_ for what had happened. That was what had really set the werewolf off.

Remus had made it very clear that if any of them even so much as thought about blaming a fourteen year old boy for what was clearly the work of a skilled, fully trained wizard, there wouldn't be enough pieces of them left to find, let alone identify a body with. It had been satisfying to see how quickly everyone had paled.

Sirius had later informed him that Remus had nearly gone full on werewolf at them all, complete with sharp teeth, glowing eyes, and claws. He hadn't been all that surprised, honestly. It was rare that he and Mooney really agreed on anything enough to do that but they certainly agreed on the matter that was their cub.

Sirius turned to him after finishing the conversation with Harry. "Looks like we've got some hunting to do," the man grinned. It wasn't a nice grin, either. "What do you say we hunt down some scum and teach them the…error of their ways?"

Remus flashed his friend a fanged grin, his eyes still a bright amber that spoke of the danger lying just beneath his skin. "What are we waiting for?"

Oh yes, whoever this tosser was had made one hell of a mistake.


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, somehow, I've managed to get behind on updates on ao3. These chapters have been on FF.net for a while and I am so sorry that I haven't posted them here until now. So I'm mass updating them now and I will try to keep the updates the same for here and FF.net from now on.
> 
> Thanks to Thundramon from FF.net for proof-reading these chapters!

It was the middle of potions call when Harry was called to his first event as a champion. Harry really would have preferred remaining in class. Snape, however, didn't seem to want to force the issue and sent Harry off with a glare.

Relying on Snape being Snape to keep from going was probably always going to end in failure, that annoying, the contrary bastard. Harry was likely being a bit uncharitable towards the man, seeing as he knew that Snape was keeping his act together in effort to get the Board off his back but seriously. Would it kill him to push the issue one time?

It didn't help that Colin Creevey had been the one sent to get him. Now, Harry liked Colin and had been genuinely upset when he was attacked during the Chamber incident. That didn't mean that the other boy's fan worship wasn't aggravating. Harry had almost become accustomed to random photos being taken of him at any given moment of any day because of Colin.

"So what is that about?" Harry asked, trying to make conversation. It was a little awkward being stared at for so long without a sound being made.

Colin shrugged. "Professor Dumbledore just said to retrieve you from class."

They descended into silence again. Harry nearly cheered when they arrived to the room where everyone was gathering and Colin headed back to his own class. That was the most awkward ten minutes of his life, Harry lamented.

Thankfully, Gabriel didn't comment.

"And here he is!" A shrill voice sounded. Harry nearly blanched when he saw the woman who had spoken up. Rita Skeeter was a well known reporter for the Daily Prophet and not everything said about her was good. Skeeter had a habit of embellishing her stories to make them more interesting. "The famous Harry Potter, fourth champion!"

Harry immediately sought out Cedric, eyes pleading with the older boy for help. The Hufflepuff seemed rather rattled already and gave Harry a grimace in answer. Harry did not like the look the older boy shot at the woman at all. "Pleased to meet you," he hesitantly spoke up.

' _I'd go with flattery,'_ Gabriel advised. _'Reporters like her always like flattery.'_

Harry didn't have time to answer as he found himself pulled away from the doorway and into a small corridor off to the side. The raven haired teen didn't even have time to shout for help before the door closed behind them. "Shouldn't we be in with the others?" Harry asked, desperately trying to will himself into the room.

He may have gotten over his hesitance with people over the last few years but Rita was bringing all of his instinct gained from a decade at the Dursley's right back. Harry didn't appreciate it, either.

"Oh, but it's _you_ who the public are so curious about!" Rita batted her eyelashes at him. "The unwilling fourth champion, forced to compete in a Tournament against his will. Why, it's a tragedy!"

Somehow, Harry got the feeling that if people weren't afraid of pissing of Sirius and Molly that Rita would be playing a much different tune. He would have to remember to thank them both later. Right now, he needed to figure out how he was going to play this.

' _Try playing the uncertain fourth year.'_ Gabriel prompted. _'Add in a little flattery and point her at the others as the_ 'real' _champions. That should give her enough to work with and if she does anything funny, we sick Sirius on her.'_

"Well, I'm not all too sure how to take it," Harry began. "I really wasn't expecting anything like this to happen. After last year, I was kind of hoping to have a rather boring, uneventful year getting to know Sirius better."

Rita positively frothed at the mouth. "You and your godfather are getting along rather well, then?"

' _This better not be another Sirius is crazy angle.'_ Gabriel growled. It still annoyed them to think that after everything, the ministry had tried to pull a stunt like that when Sirius first filed for custody. Come to think of it, they had never asked the man why he was so annoyed with Dumbledore like they had meant to. _'Oops.'_

"Sirius is great." Harry narrowed his eyes at the woman. "He and I get on wonderfully. We shared a house together over the summer. I don't think that has anything to do with what's going on with the Tournament."

Rita's eyes glimmered at his change in demeanor. "You're right, of course. My own curiosity was at work there, I'm afraid. I'm sure as a bright young boy, you know the feeling."

' _Flattery will get you nowhere.'_ Gabriel snickered. Harry fought to keep his own amusement down. He had enough life experience from his memories to spot a trick like that a mile away and that was just from his human memories. This woman might be good at manipulation but she was no Samael.

That gave Harry an idea, actually. Rita wasn't going risk the wrath of the infamous Sirius Black, innocent or not. Only a moron actually believed that Sirius broke out of Azkaban to warn people about Pettigrew. No, it was obvious that Sirius had broke out to kill the rat and to get him away from _Harry_. And Rita wasn't a moron, despite her rather poor attempts at manipulation.

"Of course!" Harry gave her a bright smile. "It just bugs me, how the Ministry could put my godfather through years of Azkaban and then question his sanity when he tried for custody of me. Custody that he rightfully would have had when I was a baby if he had been granted a trial like our basic rights assure us that all citizens are entitled to."

"Really?" Distraction successful, Harry thought smugly.

"Oh yes. He wasn't even allowed to contact me during that time period." Harry continued. "I mean, it's nice that they compensated him for the twelve year of Azkaban he suffered through and the lack of trial, but money isn't going to take that away is it?"

"No, it isn't." Rita simpered, seemingly drooling with what Harry was telling her. It didn't surprise him that the Ministry kept his custody change quiet. At the same time, he could see the wheel in her head turning as she realized what Sirius having custody of him meant for her. Everyone knew that Harry had been raised by muggles and Rita had likely been banking on the fact that the muggles wouldn't be aware enough of Wizarding Law to know how to fight back if she slandered him. Sirius, though, was a different story.

"And now there's the Tournament to worry about!" Harry gave her his best 'pity me' look. Gabriel cackled in their head. This was kind of fun. "As a minor, I shouldn't be allowed to participate at all without guardian consent, not to mention how they managed to let someone alter the Goblet enough to enter me at all! And until the Headmaster pointed out that it's impossible for a fourth year to alter the magic of the Goblet like that, everyone was set to blame me! Sirius was livid!"

Rita was definitely drooling now. "That must be really frustrating," she acknowledge sympathetically. The glint in her eyes gave her real feelings away. Harry could also see wariness at the mention of Sirius.

"You have no idea," Harry sighed, making sure that his body language screamed misery. 'How is she falling for this,' he marveled internally.

' _Easy,'_ Gabriel answered. _'Extreme stupidity and the fact that she underestimates us because we look fourteen. If we were an adult, she probably would have caught on to what we were doing a while ago. As it is, she's focused on the fact that we_ aren't _an adult.'_

"It's even worse for the others!" Harry made sure to add. "They earned being chosen as Champion and now everyone's ignoring them in favor of me! I doubt that besides Krum, you know who the other two are. Shouldn't the public be more interested in who was actually chosen for this rather than the one forced into it?"

Rita nodded frantically, her eyes wide and gleaming. Just as she was about to ask another question, the door opened and revealed Dumbledore. "If you are quite done with young Mr. Potter, we would like to begin."

Rita was quick to agree and practically bolted out of the corridor. Harry gave the Headmaster a grateful look and darted through the door. Cedric waved him over after noticing him re-enter. "How bad?" the seventh years asked in a whisper.

Harry smirked. "Not as bad as it could have been." Name dropping Sirius and mentioning the change in guardianship had made sure of that, he thought smugly.

Cedric eyed the smirk for a moment before shaking his head. "You spend too much time around the twins," he laughed.

Harry shrugged, unrepentant. "I regret nothing." Cedric snickered some more, drawing questioning looks from the other two champions and an interested glimmer from Rita.

In could have been worse, Harry acknowledged as the Weighing of the Wands began.

* * *

The article on the Champions came out the next day and sent the students of all three schools into a flurry of discussion.

Rita had done exactly what Harry had wanted her to.

**The Four Triwizard Champions!**

_**By Rita Skeeter** _

_**Yes, dear readers, you read that right! On Halloween night when the Goblet of Fire picked the champions of each school, a fourth champion was also selected! And who could this fourth champion be other than Britain's own Harry Potter!** _

_**Now, most of you are probably thinking foul play on young Harry's part however I can assure you that none was more shocked than Harry himself. And who could blame the new fourth year for his surprise? After all, in the history of the Triwizard Tournament there has never been a fourth champion. It simply shouldn't be possible.** _

_**So how is it that now we find ourselves with an impossible fourth? I, my dear readers, am calling foul play. Somehow during the week that the Goblet was lit, someone managed to tamper with the Goblet with the goal of entering young Harry Potter into the Tournament. And instead of trying to find the culprit, those present during the choosing ceremony turned to blame Harry himself!** _

_**How, may I ask, was a mere fourth year student supposed to have correctly tampered with a magical object as powerful as the Goblet without being caught? It's simply no possible and if not for Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, young Harry might still be accused of such a thing.** _

_**How do I know this? Well, during the Weighing of the Wands held only yesterday, I was able to interview Harry for myself. I must say, I have never met such a polite young man and it was clear to me from the beginning that young Harry wanted nothing to do with the Tournament. In fact, he seems almost distraught at being forced to participate.** _

" _ **I was just hoping for an uneventful year getting to know my godfather," young Harry told me. As you all know, Sirius Black was cleared of all charges after the capture of Peter Pettigrew. Mr. Black was sent to Azkaban without a trial only to break out twelve year later after a series of bizarre coincidences that lead him straight to Pettigrew.**_

_**That is not where the story ends, my readers. After being cleared of all charges, Sirius Black went on to fulfill his godfatherly duty and sought for custody of his godson, Harry Potter. His request was granted by the Ministry after a thorough investigation into Mr. Black's sanity after twelve years in Azkaban. (see page 10 for more details).** _

_**Young Harry was also quick to point out how unfair this whole thing was not only to him, who is now forced to compete, but to the other champions. "I bet other than Victor Krum (see page 4 for full details) you don't even know who the other champions are!"** _

_**I was sad to say that Mr. Potter was right. This injustice is not only focused on young Harry but on his fellow champions as well. Fleur Delacour (see page 3 for full details) and Cedric Diggory (see page 2 for full details) have been lost from the public eye due to this horrible spectacle. I wish to offer my sincerest apologies for this oversight on behalf of the wizarding world. I also offer my congratulations on their selection as Champion!** _

Harry stopped reading after that, firm smirk in place. Hermione snatched the paper from him in that moment and began skimming over the article. "I'm surprised," the girl mumbled. "I was expecting her to completely pass over the others altogether. This is actually much more interesting than her usual drivel."

Harry snickered. "I know. I was half expecting her to completely ignore or embellish everything I said entirely. I suspect that the threat of Sirius Black coming after her is what kept her from doing so. Plus, she seemed to just love everything I was telling her."

Hermione gave him a look, eyebrows raised in surprise. "You mean you actually said those things?"

Ron, now interested, snatched the paper from her to see for himself. After a few minutes, he laughed and handed it back to the indignant girl. "You've been spending too much time with Fred and George, mate."

"That's what I said," the voice of Cedric Diggory came from behind them. Harry looked up in surprise. Cedric gave him a rueful grin. "Now I know why you were looking so smug yesterday. You really played it up for her, didn't you?"

Harry shrugged. "It's not like I lied. I just embellished a bit, something she was going to do anyways."

Cedric hummed in acknowledgement. "You made enough of an impression. I have to ask, did you tell her anything else?"

Harry frowned. "Not really. Just what it says on the front page. Why?"

The Hufflepuff grimaced. "Somehow, she found out I was the one who rescued you from the Dementors last year. She talks all about it during my page. I just can't figure out how she knew it was me. Dumbledore never released my name when he made that statement last year."

Harry winced in sympathy. "I didn't tell her, if that's what you mean. I'm not sure how she found out but it's not like it was a giant secret. Most of the school could have told her without even thinking about it."

Cedric groaned and nodded. "True. Either way, thanks for that. I'm sure Fleur and Krum appreciate you pointing it out. Even if it was just to 'take thee 'ressure off of 'im'." Cedric made a face to go along with the horrible French accent before grinning.

Harry and the others that heard laughed in response. "Nice one!" Fred called out from where he was sitting not too far away. Cedric saluted at him before making his way back over to his own table.

Harry just shook his head at them all. _'At least things are never boring around here.'_ Harry could hear the grin.

'At least boring doesn't try to kill us,' he muttered back as conversation finally turned to something else.

' _You got me there.'_

* * *

The article did exactly what Harry had hoped it would and the student body backed off. It seemed that they weren't sure what to think of his participation anymore, though the Slytherin's didn't seem to care all that much whether or not he had cheated his way in or was being forced to participate. Harry found that with the rest of the school backing down, this didn't bother him all that much.

Harry was just glad that he didn't need to go everywhere with an escort anymore.

That didn't solve all his problems, though.

"I'm sorry pup," Sirius sighed from over the mirror. "Remus and I have looked into everyone at that school and no one raises any red flags. The only one with a connection to Voldemort besides Snape is Karkaroff and I would be surprised if he was the inside man."

Harry paused. "What about Snape?" he demanded, eyes narrowed. "And why is Karkaroff not an option?"

Sirius frowned. "You didn't know? Snape's a Death Eater, one of Voldemort's minions."

"Followers, Sirius!" Remus' voice called. "Keep calling them minions and one of them will curse you!"

"Let'em try!" Sirius called back before resuming the conversation. "Supposedly he was a spy for our side and that's why he wasn't sent to Azkaban. Karkaroff, though, got off by snitching. Gave away quite a few names to keep from going away, one of them being old Barty Crouch Jr."

Harry knew that name. "You mean that asshole who threw you into Azkaban without a trail?" After the fall out of Sirius' trial, there had been an investigation as to who had been involved in the miscarriage of justice. Bartemius Crouch had been one of the key figures and was currently holding onto his job by a very thin string.

"His son," Sirius explained. "Tosser named the kid after himself. He was real big before that but the scandal of having his son being a Death Eater did a lot of damage to his career. Serves the man right, I say. Kid died in Azkaban awhile back. Wife died of grief not long after."

"That's horrible," Harry acknowledge. "What does any of that have to do with the Tournament of the fact that there are two former Death Eaters in the school?"

' _Really, what kind of name is Death Eaters?'_ Gabriel snorted. _'Death probably really gets a kick out of that one.'_

Harry carefully ignored that last part.

"Because," Sirius looked downright smug now. "The Tournament was a joint effort between Ludo Bagman and Crouch. It turns out that he was regulated to the Department of International Cooperation after the scandal. I guess he's trying to use it to make a comeback."

"You think he's behind my participation," Harry realized after a moment of thought. "By having me participate, whether it's forcefully or willingly, that's going to bring a lot of attention to the Tournament. It would also give the media and public something to focus on besides his blunder with your case."

"Exactly!" Remus called. Harry rolled his eyes, wondering why they didn't just share the mirror at this point.

"It's a good theory," Harry acknowledged after Sirius nodded. "As one of the people behind the Tournament he would have had access to the Goblet long before it arrived here and was lit, explaining how no one noticed it being tampered with."

Sirius' grin grew, becoming more and more dangerous. "I thought so too. Now I'm not saying I'm one hundred percent sure of this theory as there's still the Voldemort angle to consider as well. It very well could have been someone else entirely but Crouch has been acting suspicious ever since the incident at the World Cup and his house-elf was caught with the wand that conjured the Dark Mark."

That wasn't something Harry had been aware of. "That wasCrouch's elf?"

"It was." Remus answered, sounding a lot closer than he was before. "The Ministry covered it up but Dobby knows a few of the elves at Hogwarts, where Crouch's elf works now, and they told him the whole story. Apparently she's very distraught about being freed."

So the elf was in the castle? Harry narrowed his eyes. "Now you're catching on," Sirius drawled. "That elf is insanely loyal to her old master despite being freed. Crouch could have easily convinced her to find something with your signature, like say a piece of homework, and put it in the Goblet when no one was around."

Harry nodded, mulling over their theory. They had a good point and it was clear they had done a lot of digging to get all the information that they had. Harry wasn't even sure how they had found this much out in such a short time as it had only been a week since he'd been entered but they had. At the same time, Harry wasn't willing to discount the Voldemort theory entirely either. The wraith was still out there and he no doubt had Pettigrew to aid him now. That rat would have gone straight to the man as soon as he realized that hiding out in the Wizarding World with animagus form common knowledge was suicide.

"I'll keep an eye on him during the Tournament," he decided. "But I'm not going to ignore the Voldemort theory. We can't know for sure which one is behind it just yet."

Sirius nodded, "We'll keep digging and see if something else raising alarms."

"Keep safe!" Remus called as the connection severed.

* * *

Harry found that his free time suddenly became more and more scarce. He'd gone from suddenly having loads of time to just walk around the school and explore too spending most of his days trying to figure out what he was going to do for the first task.

To make things even more difficult, Harry had no idea what it entailed other than nesting dragons. He was tearing his hair out in frustration as it could be anything. Cedric was in no better a state either.

It had occurred to Harry that Cedric was likely still entirely clueless about what the first task could be and he had cornered the other boy a few days after talking to Sirius and Remus.

Cedric had not been pleased to hear that nesting mother dragons were going to be anywhere near the vicinity of the first task, let alone part of it. Since Harry was the one with books recommended and gifted to him by someone who worked with dragons for a living, Cedric had teamed up with him.

They spent hours in the library, tearing through everything they could find on how to deal with dragons. There was very little that was actually useful as most books claimed sending in a single wizard against such a beast was suicide.

That was not comforting.

On the fourth day of their binge reading, Harry had finally finished the last book on dragons in the library. Since owning a dragon was illegal, there were very few books on it, even in the restricted section. "This one is just as useless," he growled.

Cedric groaned. "We need to know more about the task before we can figure out what we can use. Are you sure that Charlie can't tell you anything else?"

"No, he really can't." Harry glared at the offending book. "Just that they are using nesting mothers for some reason."

"That's what concerns me," Cedric admitted. "What could they possibly need nesting mothers for? Dragons are bad enough without the added aggressiveness that comes with nesting."

Harry sat up straighter. "You don't think…"

"That they want us to grab one of the eggs?" Cedric finished dryly. "Maybe. I hope not, though. I don't fancy ending up dead because I was trying to steal a dragon egg, thanks. Besides, the Ministry wouldn't be that stupid."

"These are the same people that stationed the Dementors here last year," Harry reminded him. "And the same people who tried pinning Hagrid for opening the Chamber of Secrets the year before, just so they could be seen 'doing' something."

Cedric stared, "They tried pinning that on Hagrid?!" The Hufflepuff hid his face in his hands. "We are going to die, aren't we? Why did I let dad talk me into this? I still have Newts to worry about, for Merlin's sake!"

Harry gave him a sympathetic look, inwardly cursing everything he could think of. _'It's like these people get off on trying to kill us,'_ Gabriel marveled. _'The fact that we haven't died yet is a miracle.'_

"We need to look at this a new way," Harry announced. "These books aren't going to help us any and we need to start planning a strategy. Playing to our strengths."

Cedric looked up from his fingers, studying him. "For someone who's going to be facing a dragon, you are surprisingly calm about this. I have three years more schooling than you and I am having a nervous breakdown. Yet you're sitting there like this is something you've done before."

' _Caught on to that, huh?'_ Harry just shrugged, unsure of what to say. Cedric wasn't stupid and Harry honestly liked the other boy.

"Just how much of the rumors about your school years are true?" the seventh year continued, eyes narrowed.

Harry bit his lip in thought. "Well," he began. "That depends on which rumors."

"The ones about the Troll and how you and Ron took it down. Or Professor Quirrell and how your three stopped him from stealing something from the out of bounds corridor that was supposed to guarantee a gruesome death. How you and Ron found the Chamber and you killed the monster inside by yourself and rescued Ginny Weasley. Or that there was more to the incident with Black last year than everyone knows!" Cedric locked his gaze on him, frowning.

"Er, they all are?" Harry offered hesitantly.

The Hufflepuff boy stared, eyes wide. "They all are?" he whispered.

Harry shrugged uncertainly. He'd never been called out on one of the many life or death experiences that he'd been a part of before. Even after the Chamber, everyone had just been so relieved to see them that Harry had barely had to explain anything that had happened. Even when he'd explained things to Sirius, the man had been more focused on the fact that he was an Archangel than anything else.

Cedric didn't have that distraction. In fact, he seemed both horrified and intrigued at the thought of what Harry had been up to since coming to Hogwarts. "You actually fought that Troll?"

"Um, yeah. I jumped on its back and Ron levitated its club above its head and knocked it out."

"And Quirrell?"

"Was possessed by the spirit of Voldemort and trying to get the Philosophers Stone that was hidden on the third floor past a series of traps."

"Wait, what?!" Cedric sat up straighter. "Why was the stone here?! And what do you mean he was possessed by You-Know-Who?!"

"Okay, so I don't know how, but Voldemort's was sticking out of the back of Quirrell's head the entire time, hidden by the turban. The garlic was to keep people from noticing the rotting smell. And the stone was here because Dumbledore was guarding it as a favor to Flamel. I don't know why he put it in the school, in hindsight that was a really dumb move. Hermione, Ron, and I figured it out though and managed to keep it from him. Quirrell was killed when Dumbledore arrived and Voldemort abandoned him." Thinking about it, a lot of things from first year really didn't add up now that he was looking back. Why did Dumbledore send Hagrid to get the stone and why put it in the school with children in the first place?

"I was taught in a classroom by a man possessed by You-Know-Who." Cedric looked rather faint. "What about the Chamber?"

"Voldemort's fault again. Mr. Malfoy slipped Ginny an enchanted diary that was made to open the chamber by possessing the host. Apparently, Voldemort's the Heir of Slytherin and the monster was actually Slytherin's basilisk."

"You're joking. Tell me you're joking." Cedric demanded.

"Afraid not. It's dead now, though."

"You killed a thousand year old Basilisk. At _twelve._ "

"With Gryffindor's Sword. It's hidden in the Sorting Hat." This was actually kind of fun, Harry thought before immediately feeling bad about it. "Stuck it right through the mouth after Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, blinded it."

Cedric just started before slamming his head against the table. Madame Pince looked up from her desk and glared in warning before turning away. "I'm going to be outdone by a fourteen year old."

Harry patted his back comfortingly.

* * *

Barty Crouch Jr. smirked from his place behind his desk.

Originally, he had doubted his ability to get this done in time for his master. The Goblet was more powerful than he had expected and a Confundus Charm just wouldn't make it past the protections that protected it. If not for his master being clever enough to bypass the protections with a series of runes and the help of that disgusting rat, the plan would have been compromised and they would have had to find another way to get test the Potter brat.

The Dark Lord couldn't use just anyone for this ritual, they had to be powerful to get the most out of it. While the Potter brat was certainly skilled in class, that wasn't enough to make a decision like this on. No, if the boy couldn't make it to the final phase of the Tournament then he wasn't _worthy_ of assisting the Dark Lord in returning.

A crazed gleam entered his polyjuiced eyes and Barty made no effort to hide them.

After all, everyone knew that Mad-Eye Moody was insane.


	41. Chapter 41

In the end, Cedric managed to get passed everything Harry had admitted to (or at least decided to ignore it for now) and they got back to work on their strategies based on their strengths.

Cedric's best subjects were Transfiguration and Potions. Potions however wasn't something that would be effective against a dragon, however, leaving only Transfiguration as an option for him. Harry didn't envy the boy in trying to come up with a strategy that used the subject against a dragon. That wouldn't be an easy task as the Dragon's hide would repel any attempt to transfigure the creature itself meaning he'd have to try another route.

Cedric was clearly frustrated by this, as he was wary about relying on hope that something he'd transfigured would keep the dragon distracted long enough to retrieve whatever it was they would need to retrieve.

If they needed to retrieve something. Neither boy was certain that was actually what they needed to do. Harry just hoped the threat of a pissed off werewolf and ex-auror/convict would keep the Ministry from making them actually making the Champions fight the dragon. It helped, Harry mused, that Sirius was also Lord Black and could easily make life hard for everyone involved if Harry got injured in this thing.

Sometimes it paid to be a minor with a rich and influential (if he wanted to be) godfather.

If only Sirius could get Harry out of participating altogether, the teen grumbled internally. Not that the man hadn't been trying to whenever he wasn't trying to find whoever had entered Harry in the first place. The man was still convinced that Crouch was a likely suspect, and Harry had to admit that his theory was pretty well thought out, but they needed to be sure before they acted. If Crouch had been the one to enter him, he had sure covered his tracks in the process because there wasn't a single trace of who had entered him on the Goblet itself according to the Ministry.

They had found the runes used to bypass the protections carved onto the bottom of the Goblet's base and confirmed that the age ward had remained untouched, meaning whoever had messed with it had been an adult. That officially ruled out Harry as aging potions wouldn't have fooled the ward at all and Harry was definitely a minor.

It had also officially confirmed that Harry had been bound by the magic of the Goblet and had no choice other than participate.

What made it worse was that there was a way out of this entire thing. Harry and Gabriel had brain stormed together and had both agreed that it was their human soul that was bound by the Goblet's magic. If they tried hard enough, they could partially mask their soul from the magic with Grace for just long enough for the magic binding him to break.

Unfortunately, Harry would have no way to explain that and demanding to have the Goblet reexamined would lead to suspicion on how he knew that he was no longer bound. It could also very well reveal _why_ he was no longer bound by the Goblet. Explaining why the stupid thing no longer thought he was human or had a soul was not something Harry wanted to do. Plus, keeping it a secret from the rest of the world would be a fool's errand.

So now Harry had to figure out a way to survive this thing without using anything that would be impossible for the average fourth year. So conjuring and advanced Transfiguration anything was definitely out.

' _Eh, we can't conjure anything other than rocks, anyways.'_ Gabriel reminded him. _'Our magic isn't refined enough for anything else. And Cedric already has dibs on Transfiguration.'_

'True,' Harry conceded before going back to brain storming. They needed to play to their strengths. So what were his best classes? He reached for a piece of parchment and started writing down everything he was taking and the grade he had received for each the year before.

_**Charms EE** _

_**Transfiguration EE** _

_**Astrology A** _

_**Potions A** _

_**Defense O** _

_**History A** _

_**Herbology EE** _

_**Care O** _

_**Runes O** _

Harry frowned at the list. His grade in Potions had always bugged him as he knew Snape was misjudging his work. Hermione nearly always got an EE on her essays in that class and the girl had always commented that Harry's essays were just as good. Shaking his head at the obvious abuse of power Snape was pulling, Harry let the matter go. It wasn't worth the fight and if he got Snape fired by complaining when the man was still being watched, the Slytherin's would be out for blood.

Harry really didn't need a fourth of his school trying to kill him on top of the yearly death threats, thanks.

"What's that?" Cedric asked, noticing the frown on the other boys face.

"Classes and grades from last year," he handed to parchment over. "I'm trying to figure out my strengths."

Cedric quickly skimmed the paper. "Looks like Runes, Care, and Defense are your best classes. Defense would be useless, though, since dealing with dragons takes multiple people."

Harry sighed. "That's what I thought. Care and Runes, then."

Cedric frowned, considering. "Runes would take a lot more knowledge than you would have at this level. You're just starting Linking, right?"

Harry groaned loudly before nodding. "You're right. I mean, I'm a bit ahead but not enough to know how to take down a dragon."

Cedric nodded, thoughtful. "This is likely way they put up the age ward. You just don't have enough magical knowledge for this. How you managed to survive your adventures is already a miracle."

Harry perked. "That's just it," he grinned at Cedric's questioning look. "During each and every one of those times, I worked with what I had. We're only allowed our wands, right?"

"Yes," Cedric nodded. "Why do I get the feeling like I'm not going to like your plan?"

"Because you're really going to hate my plan," Harry grinned.

The Hufflepuff let out a resigned sigh. "How did I get dragged into this insanity?"

* * *

November 24th came with a flurry of excitement from the entire Wizarding World. Reporters and students crowded in the stands, all of them fighting to get a decent seat as the dragon handlers wrestled the first of the dragons into the modified Quidditch pitch.

Harry could even see Sirius and Remus among the other families of the champions. His godfather was scowling heavily at everyone and everything while Remus growled every time the woman next to him who greatly resembled Fleur made a comment. Harry winced at the uncertain looks coming from everyone in their vicinity. He was probably lucky that Molly Weasley wasn't up there next to them. Those people really didn't deserve to face all three unhappy adults at once.

Cedric saw where he was looking and hissed in sympathy. "They do not look happy," he commented diplomatically.

Harry, Fleur, and Krum all gave him unimpressed looks. "More like Sirius looks ready to unleash the fury of Black Family onto whoever so much as mentions the dragons," Harry groaned. "And Remus looks ready to let Mooney have a go at anyone who looks at him wrong."

"Yes," Krum nodded in agreement. "The volf is not happy."

"Mother eez doing 'er best to keep him calm," Fleur observed, amused. "Zey must be very worried."

Harry nodded absently, noting the civil attitude that the two foreigners had suddenly adopted towards him. "They certainly have been…" Harry paused, trying to think of a neutral term to describe how either man was reacting to his participation.

"Absolutely barmy?" Cedric offered, grinning. "Off their rockers?"

"Pretty much," Harry admitted. "They've been digging into anyone and everyone that might have entered me. I almost feel bad for whoever it is when they get a hold of them."

"Well isn't this a sight!" A familiar female voice spoke up. The four champions turned to see Rita Skeeter standing at the tent entrance. "All four champions, chatting like old friends!"

Krum grimaced and Fleur made a face at the sight of the woman though it disappeared before Skeeter noticed. Cedric smiled became strained.

Harry, though, just smiled kindly. "Hello, Ms. Skeeter."

Rita flashed a bright smile at him. "Rita, please dear!"

"Rita then!" Harry chirped, ignoring the incredulous looks from his fellow champions. "I wasn't aware you would be writing an article on the first task."

"Yes, it is a bit far from my normal topics. Yet this is no ordinary event! An exception had to be made, of course. And I just had to see how the champions were doing before the events started!" Rita eyed them like a shark and Harry almost pointed out that it was probably against the rules for her to be here though he reframed. As far as Rita knew, he was a shy fourth year boy that was exceedingly polite.

He wanted to keep it that way, thanks. He'd read her past articles on people who'd offended her. At the same time, he really didn't feel like dealing with her at the moment.

Thankfully, Bagman came to the rescue. "I say," the man exclaimed when he walked in to see her. "What are you doing back here? No reporter in the tent, how many times do I have to tell you! Interviews are for after the task!" He quickly ushered the woman out.

Shaking his head, Bagman turned to them. "Now then! As you all likely know, each of you will be assigned a dragon."

"The one outside pretty much gave it away," Cedric muttered just loud enough for the other champions to hear. Krum snorted.

"Each Dragon has been given a golden egg to guard. The eggs hold the clue to the next Task which will take place on February 24th! To complete the Task, you must retrieve this egg. Points will be rewarded on how efficiency of your strategy and the method used. Points will be taken on how much damage you sustain. Points will be taken if you damage any of the other eggs." Bagman clapped his hands together. "Any questions?"

' _Yeah,'_ Gabriel piqued up. _'Is your stupidity contagious?'_

Harry wisely kept that quiet, snickering silently. None of the others spoke, though Cedric was looking very relieved. It was nice to know that they had been right in what the Task would be.

"Alright then!" Bagman held out a pouch. "Inside this pouch are enchanted models representing each dragon. The number on the model determines the order in which you perform the task. Ladies first!"

Fleur eyed the pouch before reluctantly putting her hand in. She pulled out a green dragon with the number two draped over it. The model stretched before curling in her hand. "Lucky! That's the Common Welsh Green, very subdued. You'll be going second." Bagman observed. Harry really wished he would tone it down with the cheeriness.

"Right then, you next!" Bagman offered the pouch to Krum. The Quidditch star grimaced and reached in, pulling out a scarlet dragon with the number three on it. "That would be the Chinese Fireball-ouch!"

A flame had shot out of the pouch, hitting the man's hand. Harry fought down a snicker. Krum did no such thing and snorted at the man's pain.

"You next," the man's good mood faded a little bit as Cedric reached in to pull out a blue dragon. The number one stood out against its scales. "Swedish Short-Snout," Bagman identified and looked a little queasy. His eyes fell on Harry. "That leaves the Hungarian Horntail…"

Harry reached into the pouch and pulled out said dragon. The number four was almost entirely unnecessary at this point. Bagman was giving Harry the most pitying look he could manage before he turned to leave.

Harry studied the model as it roared and clawed his hand. The scales were a dark black, only making the yellow eyes shine ever brighter against them. Bronze horns and spikes decorated the length of its body, digging a bit into his hand as it moved. _'Can we keep it?'_

Harry didn't bother to answer and gently held out a finger from his opposite hand for the creature to sniff.

The dragon eyed the finger, flames threatening to burn him as it stepped forward a bit. Instead of attacking, though, the small model dragon sniffed the appendage before slowly nuzzling into it. Harry grinned and carefully stroked the spike on it.

"You would make friends with a dragon," Cedric snorted, having watched the whole thing while he waited to be called. The Hufflepuff was even less surprised with his own enchanted model dragon abandoned him in favor of Harry's hair. "I should have expected that," he muttered.

"Nithhogr," Harry decided after a moment of thought. "Nith, for short."

The newly name Nithhogr nibbled a bit on his thumb before deciding to begin exploring his robe sleeve.

"You named it after the Norse dragon that devours the dead and tries to destroy the world tree?" Cedric asked in disbelief. Harry didn't bother to explain. He wasn't entirely sure where the name came from himself.

' _I like it,'_ Gabriel decided.

Nith turned and snarled at the Hufflepuff, flames lighting up her mouth. Cedric held up his hands in alarm, eyes wide as the dragon backed down and resumed her climbing on Harry's robe. The blue dragon pulled a bit on his hair and Harry glanced at Cedric in askance. The Hufflepuff waved at him the go ahead. "Scylla?" he offered. The pulling stopped, the dragon seemingly satisfied

"Iz zis normal?" Fleur asked after a moment, watching Harry and his new additions in amusement.

"Very. He's already got two pixies and a sentient book following him around, why not two enchanted dragon models?" Cedric shook his head. "At least I don't have to worry about what to do with it anymore."

"Don't forget Hedwig," Harry added as he observed Nith settle on his shoulder. "And Scylla's a she."

"His owl," Cedric informed them all. Before more could be said, the beginning of the Task was announced. "It's best if you don't question it too much," he advised the two bemused foreigners before exiting the tent.

Nith snarled a bit at Scylla when the other dragon peaked over at her. Scylla hissed back. "Be nice," Harry scolded. The two settled, though Nith seemed more reluctant than Scylla.

"British vizard's are…odd." Krum decided.

"Very," Fleur agreed.

* * *

Despite distracting himself from the Tournament with Scylla and Nith, Harry still couldn't help but worry about his turn and his plan.

Cedric hadn't liked his plan for the simple reason that there was no plan. Planning was all well and good on paper but when it came to putting it in practice? There were so many things that could go wrong and Harry didn't have the luxury of being able to put his all into this. Not without broadcasting to the world that he was far from the average fourth year and Harry knew that such a thing would only bite him later.

At the same time, Harry couldn't just do nothing and leave it at that. If he wanted to survive for the next task, he needed the clue in that egg. So he was going to do something really dangerous and wing it.

Gabriel was just as happy with this plan as Harry and Cedric. _'There are so many ways that this is going to go wrong I can't even point them all out,'_ Gabriel grumbled. _'If we die, I blame you.'_

Harry ignored the obvious problem with that statement. 'We aren't going to die. We just need to get the egg and get out. Easy.'

It was anything other than easy. Harry grimaced as his turn finally came. Bracing himself, he turned to the exit of the tent and walked out into the arena.

The full sized Hungarian Horntail was much more intimidating than Nith, who was still perched on his shoulder. The mother dragon roared when she spotted him, baring her teeth as flames licked her snout. Harry barely had time to dive behind a rock before flames engulfed the area he'd been standing. The tent caught fire with the strength of them and the crowd screamed as it threatened to spread to the stands.

' _Serves them right.'_ Harry didn't disagree. The mother roared again, angered that she had failed in frying him to a crisp.

Okay, so now what? Harry asked himself. Peeking from behind the rock, Harry surveyed the angered mother as she paced. Can't move or she'll roast us. Getting close putts those spikes and horns in striking distance and I really don't want those to hit me.

The dragon roared again as her movement was stopped by a chain around her neck. Harry focused on it and allowed a small smirk to form. _'That chain limits her movements,'_ Gabriel mused. _'She can reach her eggs and the surrounding area but she won't be able to fly that well.'_

And he knew just the spell to use first, "Accio Firebolt!" he called as the mother roared again. Harry quickly dove towards a new rock as the one he'd just left was set a flame. 'That was close,' he muttered internally.

' _And here comes our Firebolt!'_ Gabriel gleefully pointed out.

Distraction, Harry thought as the dragon noticed the new movement in the sky. He ignored Bagman as the man narrated what Harry was doing to the excited crowd. He needed something to catch her attention.

' _Patronus!'_ Gabriel suggested.

"Expecto Patronum!" Harry called and his wand lit up with light before it shot away, forming a winged ball of light. It quickly took off towards the dragon, catching her attention as she turned away from the incoming Firebolt.

"Incredible!" Bagman yelled. "Our fourth champion has cast a corporeal Patronus to distract the Horntail! It seems to be in the shape of a winged ball of light! I've never seen anything like it!"

Harry took off from his spot, lunging for his broom as it entered the arena. Without stopping his run, Harry swung himself on the broom and took off.

The angel Patronus was flying around the Horntail's face, taunting it while keeping just out of reach. It wouldn't be long before the mother gave up and noticed him so Harry sped towards the nest the instant he was in the air.

Sure enough, the mother noticed him a split second after his hand pulled the egg from the nest. With an angry roar, she swung her tail at him and Harry was just a second to slow to dodge it completely. The tip of the spike caught his broom and sent him flying towards the ground.

Harry gripped the handle of his broom with his free hand and threw open his wings, twisting in the air. His shoulder and back burst into pain as he pulled on the broom with all his might. His wings caught the air currents and the broom steadied beneath him as he quickly flew out of the arena. The dragon did make for another attack, eyeing him in speculation as he flew away. Harry didn't bother to wonder at that, just glad that this was over.

' _We are never doing that again.'_

Harry agreed whole-heartedly.

* * *

"You are insane," Cedric laughed when he landed next to the Hospital Tent. All champions were required to visit the nurse after the task, just in case. "That dragon nearly minced you!"

Harry grinned at him and shrugged. "Not the worst thing I've ever done," he admitted, thinking of the basilisk fang that had gone through his arm. "I've got a few scratches from dodging the fire but that's about it."

He had more than a few scratches, he winced internally. He'd pulled his back when he'd righted himself and had dislocated his left shoulder when he'd twisted.

Madame Pomfrey, summoned by the mere mention of possible injuries, appeared from the tent's entrance. She eyed him and sighed. "I should have known. What is it this time?"

Cedric laughed at Harry's offended expression. "Just a scratch!" Harry protested. "Nothing that needs treatment!"

"I'll be the judge of that," she told him before dragging him into the tent where both Fleur and Krum were still being treated. Fleur's skirt was a little singed but that seemed to be the only thing wrong with her and Krum didn't seem to have any injuries at all. Both look up at him as he entered, Cedric following from behind.

"It's just a scratch," Harry protested again.

"Bah!" Pomfrey narrowed her eyes at him. "I know better than to trust your judgment of your own injuries, Mr. Potter. Don't think I don't remember how you tried to downplay your injuries in your second year! You're lucky the Headmaster's phoenix was around, less you have died!"

Harry winced, remembering the conversation he'd had with Hermione after the Chamber incident. Madame Pomfrey hadn't been impressed by his lack of concern over the giant hole that had been put into his arm by the basilisk fang. "It wasn't that bad," Harry told her. It was a lie.

"That's a lie and you know it, Mr. Potter," she huffed at him. "Now sit. You're not leaving this tent until I know you aren't hiding a life threatening injury somewhere on your body. I wouldn't put it past you."

Harry sighed and resigned himself to her mercies as Cedric snickered at him from afar. Harry stuck his tongue out at the boy.

"Ah-hah!" the nurse said triumphantly. "I knew it!"

"It's fine!" Harry protested again. His body screamed otherwise.

"It certainly is not!" Madam Pomfrey whacked his head with her wand. Harry glared at her in response. "You've pulled every muscle in your back and that arm is definitely dislocated!"

"That's what you call fine?" the Hufflepuff seeker asked in shock. "Harry that is not fine! How are you even moving?!"

Harry didn't answer as a potion was forced down his throat by the irked nurse. He coughed after he swallowed, glaring at her again to show that he had not appreciated that. The throbbing in his back thankfully died down. "I'm not bleeding to death, poisoned, having a seizure or in a coma. It's fine."

' _It just hurts like a bitch,'_ Gabriel agreed.

Cedric just groaned and Madam Pomfrey sighed in response. "Mr. Potter, that is not a good indicator of what is fine or not," she rolled her eyes. "Now bite down onto this towel."

Harry did as instructed and braced himself as she snapped his shoulder back in location. "Good," she nodded taking the towel out of his mouth. "Now, if your back starts throbbing again I want you to come to me for a potion. You should be fine now. Keep that scratch clean, though."

She added the last part with more amusement than necessary. Harry stuck his tongue out at her. He didn't have time to do anything else as three concerned adults entered the Hospital Tent with urgency.

Sirius, Remus, and Charlie looked rather stressed and immediately darted over to him. "What were you thinking?!" Sirius roared, eyes wide. "You could have been killed!"

Harry winced at the yell. "I'm fine!" Now, at least.

"You had a dislocated shoulder and a pulled back," Cedric corrected from where he was standing with his parents, watching the spectacle. Harry glared at him.

"That's not fine, Harry!" Remus protested. "That is the opposite of fine!"

' _So people keep telling us,'_ Gabriel commented. _'Personally, I don't see the problem. It would have been healed by tomorrow and we could have fixed our shoulder by ourselves.'_

"You're lucky that the dragon didn't go for you a second time!" Charlie added in. "Wait, why do you have miniature dragons in your hair?"

Everyone paused and focused on said dragons. "The Horntail's Nithhoggr and the Short-Snout's Scylla," Harry informed them all, glad for the distraction. He'd forgotten the enchanted models were still there. "You both alright?" he asked them, concerned.

"Unbelievable," Sirius moaned to Remus. "He's more worried about the miniature dragons than he is for himself. James must be cackling at us from his grave."


	42. Chapter 42

The school was alive with talk of Harry's performance in the First Task. The entire school was torn before pride in his performance and absolute misery at the prospect of facing him in Quidditch now that he had a Firebolt. Gryffindor, however, were practically preening at his skill and Oliver was bemoaning the fact that he wouldn't be around to claim the Quidditch Cup the next year. All thoughts of how he had entered the Tournament were quickly forgotten in the hype.

Cedric was just as popular, though his performance hadn't been nearly as interesting. Whenever anyone mentioned that to the Hufflepuff, the seventh year would just laugh and telling them that he was too sane for such a plan to work. No one could really argue with that and soon, the whole school was of the opinion that Harry was off his rocker.

Harry found he didn't really mind this all that much. He was just glad that Cedric hadn't told anyone that he had just been winging it the entire time. He really didn't want that getting back to Sirius, Molly, and Remus. Those three were not pleased with how he had gone about completing the task as it was.

On a completely different note, Scylla and Nith had been received rather well by the other Gryffindors when Harry had introduced them. Nith was a little wary of anyone not Harry but she seemed to get along well enough with Tinker. The little pixie and the enchanted dragon had an odd friendship. Nith would help Tinker fix certain objects that needed to be welded together and Tinker would share the food he was given in return. Nith seemed to be content with this arrangement so Harry left it alone for now. He did make sure the dragon knew not to hurt anyone, though.

Scylla, on the other hand, preferred to remain in Harry's hair most of the time. Harry wasn't sure why but he left it alone. Scylla never bothered anyone and the professors didn't seem to mind it any so he just shrugged it off and continued with his life.

With the First Task out of the way and the Second Task three months away, Harry was glad to see the return of his free time.

With this realization, Harry immediately sought out Luna the first chance he got and asked to resume their Chamber project.

Luna was quick to agree and most nights found the duo cleaning up the Chamber and restoring it to its former glory.

With the water gone and the debris cleaned up and fixed, the Chamber was beginning to really shape up. Luna had finished getting rid of the bones in the entry chamber before the mess with the Tournament had taken up all of Harry's time. With the bones gone, remains of portraits and tapestries had been unearthed. Harry had even found what looked to be an old drawing of castle grounds that was at least a few hundred years old.

"It's so sad," Luna said when she saw the drawing before she tried to hand it back to him. Harry just shook his head and motioned for her to keep it.

"To think," he said as he looked around. "This place was supposed to be a safe haven for the people in the school and no one remembers. Somehow, in the last thousand years, we just forgot."

"The wrackspurts must have really wanted this place gone," Luna mused as she helped him collected anything that might not be beyond saving. So far, they had a few tapestries that were only a bit frayed at the edges. All the portraits were damaged beyond repair. Harry just hoped that they hadn't been enchanted before being destroyed by time.

"History is written by the victors," Harry sighed and looked around. He flicked his wand, banishing the materials too damaged to fix. Beautiful black stone was revealed for all to see. There were a few chips in it here and there but nothing too bad. "That's as good as this area is going to get. Let's go put these with the other things we found."

Standing, Harry turned to head towards the main Chamber and paused when his eye caught a slight unevenness in one section of bricks. "Hey, Luna!" he called to the girl who had already started walking off. He moved over to the bricks in question. "Come help me with this!"

The blond haired girl gently set down the items in her hand before moving back over to him to see what he was talking about. Harry ran his fingers over the unevenness. Sure enough, there was a small indent just big enough for fingers along the edges. "Grab the other side?"

Luna eyed the section with a clarity that he wasn't used to seeing in her gaze and nodded. "On three?" she asked.

"Three." Harry nodded. "1…2…3!"

They heaved, pulling with all their might. The section gave way and slid out of place, opening to reveal hatch underneath, just big enough for a person to fit through. Harry felt his eyebrows raise as he stared at it. "This entire Chamber is already yards below the school, just what would they need another underground cavern for?"

Luna hummed happily. "This is the Chamber of Secrets."

Well, there was that, Harry snorted to himself. "So Luna, what do you say we start uncovering some of those secrets?"

Luna smiled serenely at him. "I say what are you waiting for? The nargles will get impatient."

Harry grabbed the handle of the hatch and pulled it open. The hinges, likely as old as the school itself, creaked in protest at the sudden use after so long of stay close. They'd likely have to replace it eventually. "I'll go first to check of any surprises of the snake kind," he told her.

Luna nodded, smiling with excitement in her eyes that Harry was more used to seeing in a forest setting. He supposed that Luna had always wanted to uncover a mystery to solve. "Lumos," he muttered, pointing his wand towards the opening. Darkness gave way to the light, revealing a long drop down. "Just how deep can they make this thing go?" he muttered before looking for a rope, ladder, or some way down. It was bad enough that he had to jump down the pipe every time he wanted to get down here. And getting up took a lot of concentration since Luna wasn't good enough on a broom to fly up herself. Two people on one broom was asking for trouble so Harry tended to fly next to her, guiding the broom up.

It was good practice in a controlled area but not something he wanted to try in a small area.

"There's no ladder," he observed. "Or rope."

Luna frowned before pointing. "Those look like foot holes," she commented. Harry moved towards her to get a better look. Sure enough, there were small holes going downwards in the wall.

"Can you keep a light going while I climb?" he asked her. Luna cast the spell in response, keeping it directed at the opening. Harry cancelled his own spell and moved to the opposite edge. Kneeling, he slowly used his right foot to search out the hole before continuing with the other foot. He kept up that pattern of decent until his head was only just under the opening.

Harry went to find the other foot hole and was surprised when his foot his solid ground. "It's not that deep," he called to Luna and moved to place his other foot downwards.

What happened next was a series of events that had Harry regretting not giving Luna the broom in cases of emergency. With a sudden unexpected lurch, the floor beneath him fell away, taking him with it. Harry let out a surprised shriek at the sudden decent before he could help himself, falling with the floor as they moved down. Luna's concerned voice, muffled by the sound of the wind and the sudden distance from the opening and the platform Harry was standing on.

It took both forever and no time at all for the platform to come to a slow stop. With rather frayed nerves, Harry quickly pulled out his wand and wasn't all that surprised when it lit up without a word said from him. His magic was tingling just underneath his skin, ready to help defend him if he needed it.

The appearance of light caused a chain reaction as green and blue crystal seemed to catch it and distribute the light around the room, revealing a large carven all around him. Bookshelves and a desk filled the room, with a small cot leaning against the wall, ready to be pulled down if needed. The ceiling seemed to shine with moving white magic that resembled modern muggle lighting and seemed to be generated by the crystal Harry had seen before. Not far from the cot was a large wooden door, leading the teen to believe that there was more than just the study down here.

Harry craned his neck upwards the way he came but could see nothing other than inky darkness. Even his Lumos only allowed him seem so far. _'Crap,'_ Gabriel winced. _'Luna must be scared out of her mind and we've got the only way out sitting in our pocket.'_

"Luna!" Harry shouted up. His yell echoed and Harry strained to hear a response. None came, likely meaning he was too far down for her to hear. "How did they even build this place? Muggle drills would probably need another few years to reach this far!"

The Chamber was already impressively far down underground as it was. This place had to be at least a few hundred feet further than that! Harry couldn't find any recollection of such knowledge in any of his memories. And how had they enchanted the platform to know when to move? Harry certainly would have noticed the movement when they first opened the hatch if it was a timed movement.

' _We could always try flying back up.'_

"No, too narrow." Harry observed. "We won't have enough air flow." He really wished that he knew dimensional flight right now. He could just pop back up and everything would be fine, no worries of airflow needed.

A grumpy roar coming from above him made Harry pause. Scylla had been exploring the Chamber with them before settling down on some spare parchment they'd brought with them. Grinning, Harry held out his hand for the enchanted dragon to land in as she came into sight, quill and parchment in her claws. Luna was a genius.

"You are a life saver, Scylla," Harry cooed at the dragon. Scylla gave a sleepy yawn before surveying her surroundings with curiosity. "Pretty brilliant, isn't it?"

The Swedish Short-Snout just flew up and onto his head. Laughing, Harry walked over to the desk and sat in the already present chair. A quick look through the papers showed that each one of them was blank. "Must have heard me after all," he grinned.

_**Luna-** _

_**Fine. The platform seems to be made to move when occupied. Not sure how far down this is but it's at least a few hundred feet. Seems to be a cavern of some kind. Definitely more than one room.** _

_**I'll see if I can't send the platform back up for you.** _

_**-Harry** _

Nodding to himself, Harry rolled the parchment up. "Think you can go take this to Luna? I'm sure she's worried sick about us both by now."

Scylla moved a bit in his hair, seemingly contemplating the request. Harry felt bad for asking but Hedwig wasn't available to take it instead. The dragon seemed to decide that going back up wasn't too much of a chore and grabbed the parchment with her talons before taking off. "Be careful!"

Scylla roared in response, likely offended by the concern. Harry grinned at her departure before turning to the shelves. "Right…now how to get back up?"

Forty minutes of searching later and Harry found absolutely nothing on how to work the platform among the bookshelf or in the desk. The door also refused to open for him so Harry was forced to concede that he'd have to figure it out himself.

' _Maybe there's a switch?'_ Gabriel suggested once again.

'We already looked at the walls, tried the crystals, and pulled on all the books,' Harry reminded him with an internal groan of frustration. Fed up, Harry slumped against the wall. 'What else can we try?'

' _It can't be all that hard to work or else this room wouldn't be here,'_ Gabriel grumbled.

'Tell that to the forty minutes we wasted trying to figure it out,' Harry huffed.

' _We could try stomping on it until it works!'_ Gabriel shot back and Harry realized he was having a full blown argument with himself. Why was this his life?

"Why not!" Harry threw his hands up and stood, walking over to the platform. If it turned out to be that easy… Harry lifted his leg and slammed his foot down.

And nearly fell over as the platform lurched upwards, the speed nearly pushing him against the floor of it. When it finally stopped, Harry found that he was back where he started. "Oh you've got to be kidding me." Harry almost considered cursing something before forcing himself to calm down.

"Harry!" Luna's voice called from above him. The blond girl's face was more than a little relieved. "You're back!"

"Apparently, you have to stomp on it to get it to move," Harry told her dryly before grinning. "Want to come see?"

The Ravenclaw beamed before hoping down without warning, sending them speeding back down as soon as her feet touched. Harry felt her laughter against his chest as she pushed him to the ground at the same time. The raven haired teen had to admit that it was kind of fun now that he was expecting it.

The cavern was still lit when they stopped. Luna's laughter trailed off as she got a good look at the place, her eyes round with awe. Like Harry, she immediately craned her head up in order to judge how far down they had come. "This…" the girl trailed off. "Father will be so excited when I tell him!"

Harry hummed and grinned. "I'm sure the Headmaster will be even more thrilled. Just think, we're probably the first ones in centuries to be down here! Riddle probably never bothered trying to find anything besides that Basilisk!"

Luna didn't respond, already making her way towards the pile of books Harry had left when he'd been trying to figure out how to get back up. Harry shook his head and decided to leave those to her. He was much more interested in what was on the other side of that door.

* * *

Unfortunately for them both, neither managed to get what they wanted done before it was curfew. So with the reluctance of two teens intent of discovery and exploration, they made their way back up to the Chamber, closed the hatch and replaced the flooring, and then exited the Chamber altogether.

Harry supposed that it was for the best in the long run. Spending all his time in the Chamber would definitely start drawing attention to the fact that he was disappearing all the time and Harry wasn't nearly ready let people know about their side project. As soon as Harry got someone else involved, it wouldn't be long before it reached the adults and the project was assigned to a professional. Neither Luna nor himself wanted that until they were finished satisfying their own curiosity.

It was also about time he started on that amulet for the blond girl as well. He'd picked out the materials and set aside the runic sequence over the last few months. Christmas would be coming up soon, though so it was probably for the best that he started it now instead of putting it off.

Finding the right material to carve had been easier than Harry had originally expected. Luna had supplied, somehow knowing that he would need it though she hadn't known what he'd needed it for. The blond Ravenclaw had picked out a opal stone, big enough to carve but small enough to wear comfortably.

Pulling out one of the knife he always kept on his person since the Twins had given it to him, Harry grabbed the paper he'd written the correct sequence on. Finding the right Runes to use hadn't been all that hard and Harry had even substituted a few with Enochian on the suggestion of Gabriel. The hard part would be carving them in the right places on the opal.

' _Let's get started,'_ Gabriel chirped.

Two hours of carving later and Harry had all the runes carved into the stone in the right places. There had been a few rough spots and Harry had managed to cut his hand at some point but the second to last step had been completed. No he just needed to activate them.

There were a few different ways he could power the runes. He could trace each one with his magic, he could store magic in the stone itself and let the runes draw from that, or he could try and use Grace. That last option was both the best and most dangerous of them all.

Over the last few months since the school year began, they had gained less than .05 percent of their Grace. In the grand scheme of things, that wasn't all that much. Not really. Yet it was still more than they'd had before and in theory, they could use that small amount of Grace to power the amulet through the Enochian runes they had added into the sequence. Even that minimal amount of Grace would power the amulet for at least a six years longer than just magic would.

The problem with using Grace was making sure that didn't go even a thousandth above their limit or they'd risk severe bodily harm. Their body and soul just weren't accustomed enough to the Grace's presence yet. That meant that Harry's control had to be perfect if they went that route and Harry wasn't nearly as confident about his control as Gabriel was.

' _Oh come on,'_ Gabriel bemoaned in their head. _'We're going to have to start somewhere and now is the perfect time to start.'_

It was for that reason Harry had been putting off completing the amulet sooner. Gabriel was adamant that they power it with Grace. Harry understood why, he really did. Grace was the best option and if Harry started using what he could now, there was a chance that he'd increase how much he'd have access to by the end of the year, even if it was only a decimal more than what they would have had otherwise.

With the Tournament, it was also possible that they'd need more than just magic at their disposal and Harry would need to be able to use it safely to keep from killing them both if they did. So Harry understood.

At the same time, he quite clearly remembered the last time they had used Grace the year before during the Dementor incident. It had been an instinctual use, yes, but it had still caused a chain reaction that had come far too close to killing them. If not for Cedric, they would be dead. So Harry really wasn't looking forward to using it again, not even a year later.

' _We're going to have to use it sometime,'_ Gabriel sighed. _'Best start early. Just focus it towards your pink and push until I say stop.'_

Easy for him to say, Harry grumbled but placed his pinky on the opal. Sighing aloud, Harry closed his eyes and reached towards the warmth he knew from his memories as being his Grace. Focusing the smallest amount possible into his pinky and then into the opal.

' _And stop!'_ Harry immediately cut off the flow. The opal was now warm in his hand and the runes glowed bright white as he studied them.

The skin on his pinky tingled unpleasantly, almost like it was asleep. Harry shook his hand with a grimace.

' _See? Nothing life threatening!'_ Gabriel was smug. Harry didn't respond as he studied the newly created amulet some more.

He steadily ignored the feeling of loss that accompanied the absence of the warmth in his hand, despite the tingling left behind.

The last thing he needed right now was an 'I told you so'. Especially from himself.

* * *

Luna Lovegood was considered an oddity among the kinder of the Ravenclaw students and an insane embarrassment by everyone else. It didn't help that her father was the author of the Quibbler or that she could see things others couldn't. Most wrote off her claims as imaginary creatures and even Ginny, her best friend who was more than willing to help her search for them, didn't fully believe her.

Luna hadn't let that bother her. Her mother had taught her to never change herself for others and even years after her mother's death, Luna remembered the lesson. She wore her jewelry, spoke of the things that she saw, and kept her head held high whenever someone taunted her for her father's work.

When it came time for her to head to Hogwarts, Luna knew that she wouldn't be accepted by most and she was okay with that. As long as she was happy with who she was, what did a simple thing like the opinions of silly older students matter?

Things went exactly like she had known they would in her first year. Well, for the most part. She had thought she'd have Ginny but she didn't hold the redhead's absence against her. Ginny certainly hadn't planned to be possessed by an evil diary and nearly die. So Luna faced her new House alone and tried not to feel to upset when she had not made a single friend by the end of the year.

It was the summer before her second year that things changed. She'd been shopping for her things while her father did business at the bank when she'd seen them.

Wings, with feathers of green and gold that glittered in the sunlight. She'd been shocked, of course, when she realized no one else could see the beautiful appendages and it was then she realized that they'd connected to a raven haired boy with pixies in his pockets. Finding out that boy was Harry Potter just furthered her curiosity and she'd approached him.

Talking to him had been the best decision of her life. Harry was kind to her. He'd not scowled at her nor had he commented on her jewelry. She had left that conversation with an understanding of why Ginny was so fascinated by him.

Life had gone on as normal for a while. Then things had changed again when Harry came across her after one of the older girls had damaged her books and ripped her bag. The wings had quivered in fury behind him and that was when she discovered the darker side of the winged boy. He had been ruthless when he'd gone after the girls responsible.

He seemed to regret it, later, but it had been enough. Luna was quickly left alone after that, none of the Ravenclaws missing the fact that they had been targeted after their attack on the odd girl. Luna had watched the winged boy even more intently after that.

She'd worried when the Dementors attacked and saw him fall. She hadn't understood, before, that Harry's wings hadn't always been there. That the kind boy wasn't able to fly with the beautiful things. Watching him fall, wings desperately trying to keep him in the air would haunt her dreams for a very long time.

When he'd appeared again from the Hospital Wing, his wings had grown and Harry started practicing flying in the forest.

She'd followed him and watched afar as he struggled to fly. Luna didn't approach him, though. It had taken all of her courage to send her the necklace she'd made. It surprised her even more when she received a thank you letter and present back. She still smiled whenever she saw the small blue glowing rock he'd given her on her bedside table.

Then she'd found him in the forest while exploring. She could still remember the soft, silky feel of the feathers beneath her fingers and the way he had melted into her hands.

After that, Harry became a normal part of her life. He sought her out, let her watch him try to fly. He asked her questions, wanting to understand how she'd been able to touch his wings. Soon, he sought her out just to talk. He told her about how special she was for being able to see his wings, how it had surprised him at first. She'd even learned why he was so surprised she could touch them.

He'd become the older brother that she'd always wanted. Her father was ecstatic when she told him about Harry and how he'd become her friend. That he'd put a stop to the bullying. That he _believed_ her when she told him about the things she saw. Luna carefully kept out mention of his wings, though.

That summer was still the best of her life. Every day, Harry would join her and Ginny on their explorations in the woods. Her father had been both bemused and pleased when he watched her race out of the house at the same time each day, excited to spend more time with two of the most important people in her world.

When he'd come to her after the start of the school year, asking if she wanted to help him with his plan for the Chamber, she'd nearly jumped for joy. She would have preferred if Ginny had joined them but she understood why Harry hadn't asked the other girl. Ginny still hadn't gotten over what had happened to her and seeing the Chamber as it was, Luna couldn't blame her.

It had been surprising when she had first discovered debris amongst the bones. As they fixed more and more of the Chamber, Luna could see why Harry had wanted to start this project. This wasn't a place made to contain a monster that would purge the school, but a lost part of history that had been twisted over time. A part of the school long forgotten that had fallen into disrepair.

And Luna Lovegood was part of the team to make the discovery. All of this history, most of it forgotten, was right at her finger tips. Her inner Ravenclaw was overjoyed. The more she learned about the chamber, the more she felt connected to the people that had roamed it before.

Nothing, not even the earlier mishap when they discovered the underground room, could dull that excitement.

Luna closed her eyes with a small hum and leaned into the pillows of her bed. Her life was different from what it had been, what it would have stayed, without Harry Potter in it.

She wouldn't have it any other way.


	43. Chapter 43

Sirius did, eventually, get over what happened in the First Task. Mostly after he realized that Harry was completely unrepentant for everything that had happened. Remus was just resigned to it all in the end.

Harry really didn't understand the big deal. Both men knew he was an Archangel, and even not at full power, the venom of a Basilisk had failed to kill him (even if the only reason he'd survived was due to his Grace burning the venom out of his system). A dislocated shoulder and pulled back was not the worst thing he'd ever received during one of the more dangerous events in his time at Hogwarts.

He didn't tell any of them that, though. They knew, intellectually, what he had dealt with during the last three years but Harry also knew that they hadn't really connected to what that had meant. With the reveal of his nature as an Archangel distracting him, Sirius had been removed from the events of his previous years. Harry almost doubted that Remus even knew what had happened in the years before he'd taken the Defense position. And neither of them really considered the implications that Harry hadn't actually found his Grace until well into the school year of his first year, meaning that a lot of those events had happened before he was an Archangel again (sort of, at least).

' _Best not to bring that up at all,'_ Gabriel concurred in their mind. _'They would likely take it horribly.'_

"Potter!" Harry jumped, startled out of his inner thoughts. Turning to the voice that had addressed him, he was surprised to see Madeye Moody towering over him. A quick glance around told him that he was indeed still in the library so Harry focused back on the professor, confused.

"Sir?" He asked hesitantly. Harry really wanted the man as far away from him as possible; already the hair on the back of his neck was standing on end from just being in Madeye's presence.

"That was some nice flying in the task," Moody informed him and his rolling magical eye locked onto Harry's form. The teen felt uncomfortable under the blank stare.

"Thank you, sir." Never let it be said he wasn't polite. "However the First Task was a while ago. Is there something you needed?"

Moody just gave him a toothy grin. "Have you figured out the clue yet, boy?"

' _Why does he want to know?'_ Gabriel growled and Harry echoed the sentiment silently. To the professor, he flashed his best innocent grin. "Of course I have professor. Thank you for asking." It was a bald faced lie, of course. Harry hadn't looked at the golden egg since he'd gotten it, too caught up in exploring and fixing up the Chamber with Luna. _'Eh, I'm sure we'll figure it out soon enough. Well, if we ever actually get around to opening it that is.'_

Harry ignored the Archangel, eyes locked on those of his professor. Harry kept the discomfort of the unseeing eye to himself, making sure to keep the bright smile on his face. Moody studied him for a moment, frowning. Then he threw his head back and laughed, long and loud. He heard Madame Pince grumble from behind one of the shelves nearby. Harry almost wished she'd come over and confront the ex-Auror for it. Sadly, such an occurrence didn't happen.

Moody's laughter trailed off and he smile unnervingly at Harry. "You'll do, boy. I suspect the answer will come to you soon."

Then he walked off, as if he hadn't just alternated every instinct Harry had that there was something off with the man. _'Keep an eye on that one,'_ Gabriel muttered. _'There's something not right about him.'_

Harry didn't argue, eyes narrowed at the shrinking figure of Madeye Moody as the man left the library altogether, not a book in hand. If Harry had been a normal student, he might have wrote the odd conversation off as another of the man's odd mannerisms that came from working as an Auror. However, Harry wasn't a normal student and the darkness of his soul wasn't the only thing off about the Auror. As a retired Auror, Harry hadn't expected his soul to be untainted or pure white. Life didn't work that way and neither did police, which was essentially what an Auror was.

The dark and twisted soul screamed at Harry that this man wasn't just tainted by the gray that came with working so close to crime but at an enjoyment of human suffering and pain that couldn't be explained by his old career.

"I think I should have Remus and Sirius look into our newest professor," Harry muttered under his breath. Friend of Dumbledore or not, Moody had brought himself into Harry's line of sight and had showed an interest in Harry's participation that couldn't be explained away under his current position of Defense Professor.

' _Agreed.'_

* * *

Moody wasn't the only strange thing that now occupied Harry's mind.

He'd been about to crash in bed, shoes tossed off and robe thrown on the floor when he found something odd waiting for him on his mattress. There, in the center on the bed, folded neatly and looking brand new, were his glasses.

Harry just stared at the objects for a moment, mouth slightly opened in surprise. Reaching out a hand, he gently ran a finger over them and pulled back when they didn't disappear as he expected them too. "What in the name of Merlin?" Harry wondered aloud.

"What is it, mate?" Ron asked. Harry jumped at the sound causing the redhead to push past him to see what it was that had caught Harry's attention. "Are those your glasses? I thought you'd lost them?"

"So did I," Harry informed him. He'd lost them in the Chamber and had figured he'd never see them again when he hadn't come across them during the cleanup of that area. So how had they disappeared from the Chamber to end up on his bed in the middle of their dorm room, nowhere near the second floor girls bathroom?

"Strange," Ron commented before yawning. "See you in the morning, mate."

Harry made a vague humming sound, far too focused on the glasses than he was on his friend. He didn't notice the redhead shake his head as he entered his own bed, ready to sleep for the night.

Gabriel grumbled in their head. _'For once, I'd like a couple months were all we had to worry about was something trying to kill us. What is with this school? Every year gets more and more complicated. Isn't this place supposed to be the safest place in the Wizarding World?'_

Harry ignored, picking up the glasses and placing them in the drawer of his nightstand. He was tired, something was really off about Moody, he had a clue in the form of an egg to decipher, and now he had yet another mystery on his hands. How could someone have entered the Chamber to retrieve his glasses? Why return them too him? Had they taken anything else out of the Chamber and he just hadn't noticed?

"It's too late for this kind of anxiety," Harry mumbled to himself and fell backwards onto his bed.

He wasn't surprised when he didn't get all that much sleep that night.

* * *

"Are you sure, Harry?" Sirius asked, concerned. "Madeye has always been a bit strange but I wouldn't peg him as someone that would enter a minor in a dangerous tournament that's killed people in the past. Especially not when that person was the Boy-Who-Lived. Moody is single-handedly responsible for the capture and arrest of more than a fair few of Death Eaters."

Harry suppressed the snort that threatened to escape him at the name Death Eaters. Really, what were they thinking calling themselves that? "He's far too interested in me. I had a feeling he was stalking me before and the encounter in the library makes me think I was right. Moody had no reason to be there, eccentric ex-Auror or not. He was there to talk to me and no one I asked had been approached by him in order to find where I was. He knew I was in that library."

He'd gone to everyone that he had mentioned stopping in the library too. They all had confirmed that Moody had not approached any of them. It could have been a coincidence that Moody had found him there but Harry was suspicious of coincidences. Especially when it came to someone with a soul twisted like Moody's was.

Sirius frowned in thought. "That is rather strange. And you're sure that he wasn't already in the library before you left?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "He wasn't there, I know that for a fact. Fred and George saw him go in right after me."

The Twins hadn't thought anything of it until Harry had told them about the odd encounter over lunch that morning. Both redheads had come to the same conclusion as him: Moody had followed him there on purpose. So the real question was why?

Harry had a sneaking suspicion that their original theory on Crouch wasn't as solid as they had thought. Moody was starting to look like a very likely candidate as the culprit responsible for entering him in the Triwizard Tournament. The only real problem was the motivation behind entering him in it. What did Madeye Moody gain from entering Harry into a dangerous and deadly Tournament?

They didn't have an answer for that and it bothered Harry more than he liked to admit. This whole _thing_ was bothering him more than he liked to admit, even to himself. Especially to himself.

"Look, pup," Sirius sighed. "I'll see what I can find but you need to focus on getting through the tasks without giving yourself away. There's only so much you can explain away as dumb luck before people get suspicious. Work on the clue, alright? And keep your head down. Archangel or not, we need to play this safe and that means keeping whoever this is in the dark about you."

Harry mentally rolled his eyes, making sure not to do so physically; Sirius meant well after all. "I know Sirius, I've been doing fairly well at keeping myself alive up till now."

' _Was that before or after the numerous near death experiences we've had each year we've been here?'_ Gabriel wondered, dry humor echoing in Harry's head.

'Hush,' Harry told him. 'We're trying to comfort him not make him even more worried.'

Though, from the look on his godfather's face, Sirius was just as skeptical of Harry's claim as Harry himself was. The teen just gave the dog animagus the most innocent look he could in response. The fourth year had found that he was getting rather good at keeping his emotions in check recently. Harry still felt a little bad for lying, even when it was necessary, but he was finding that it was getting easier and easier to do each time, and the guilt was slowly fading over time.

He wasn't sure if he should be worried about that or not. Sirius just shook his head in answer. After a few more minutes of idle chatter, the man left to begin looking into Moody as well. Harry let his head fall back onto his pillow, letting the mirror drop onto his stomach. No one else was in the dorm room, having already gone down to breakfast and out to Hogsmeade.

Harry, though, wasn't feeling up to walking around the village at the moment. There was too much going on in his head; someone in this school was trying to get him killed and Harry's thoughts kept going right back to Voldemort. He knew, intellectually, that Voldemort was still nothing more than a shade and that it was very improbable the man had anything to do with the Tournament.

After all, how could a shade that most people didn't believe existed have entered him in the Tournament? They're theory on Bartemius Crouch made more sense than someone willingly doing the bidding of Voldemort in the Ministry.

Still, something about that thought felt off to him. Every instinct Harry had screamed that Voldemort was behind this and Moody was involved. He even had a sneaking suspicion that Crouch was part of this plot as well. And without the Chamber to distract him from the whole thing, Harry's mind kept dwelling on how this all connected.

"You're being stupid," he told himself. "An absolute moron."

Gabriel didn't comment, his presences in Harry's head oddly silent and brooding. Even now, it was an odd feeling to have, though Harry rather thought he'd miss the presence once he and Gabriel were one whole person again. It was nice, he reflected, to always have another person in his head. Even if it was only another part of himself, Harry never felt alone like he had when it was just him inside his head.

' _We need a distraction,'_ Gabriel finally decided. _'This is just going to drive us insane if we keep trying to solve it. Something tells me that we'll have our answer before the Tournament is over. Maybe even before the Second Task.'_

Harry frowned. 'What makes you say that?'

' _What makes you so sure that Moody is involved and Voldemort is behind this?'_ Gabriel shot back. _'Instinct. Even if we're not at full power, our Grace is starting to run through our system again and it's giving us a level of awareness much stronger than when it was just our memories in this body.'_

Harry frowned. 'So that's why I'm more certain Voldemort is behind it than I was when we came up with the idea?'

' _Probably. We were open to the thought that Voldemort wasn't involved when Sirius and Remus first brought up the Crouch angle. Now, though, we're almost certain that Crouch isn't the main culprit though he may be involved.'_ Gabriel pointed out. _'The only change from then and now is the fact that we have access to a very limited amount of Grace. Nothing else has really changed.'_

Harry sighed, annoyed. Even with his memories of being an Archangel, he still wasn't all that sure of how Grace worked nor was he sure that Gabriel was right in why they were so sure. Instincts made sense but was it really his Grace that was giving them such certainty?

Harry thought that there was more to this than Gabriel was theorizing. Something else, not just their Grace, was making his so sure of this all. Another force at play that they were overlooking.

Harry reached over to his nightstand, opening the drawer to pull out his glasses. He stared at the item with a frown. Somehow, the glasses had gotten on his bed after he had lost them in the Chamber. Light flickered off the lenses, shining on the canopy overhead.

A bit of study showed that they looked almost new. Slight wear and cracks that had once dressed the frames were gone and a smooth surface left behind. If Harry hadn't been so familiar with the items, he might have thought that they were newer look-a-likes to his old pair. Since he was so familiar, he knew that these were the same pair he'd lost in the Chamber, the same slight glow of his magic around the edges identified them as that.

Harry sighed once more. He wasn't sure how they fit into the grand scheme of thing yet his gut told him that somehow, they were important in figuring everything out.

The only question was how could a pair of glasses that had been mysteriously repaired and placed on his bed, lead him to the culprit that had placed his name in the Tournament?

Harry had no clue and he had a feeling that he wouldn't find out right away either.

Gabriel stayed silent in his head, not commenting at all.


	44. Chapter 44

There was something wrong with Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody.

Harry spent a week after talking to Sirius and Remus watching the professor and he was now completely sure that something was wrong with the ex-Auror. Every hour, like clockwork, the man would take a drink out of the flask that he carried around in his pocket. Not a second earlier and not a second later; Harry knew because he had timed it.

Moody also didn't seem to realize that Harry was stalking him. Another sign that something was off, Harry noted to himself. Mad-Eye Moody was supposed to be beyond paranoid, always keeping a look out with his magical eye and yet, he hadn't spotted Harry trailing behind him underneath his cloak for an entire week. Sure, Harry had taken pre-cautions; he'd cast a dozen Notice-Me-Not spells on the cloak and ducked behind any object within close range whenever Moody would glance around the hall, likely looking for Harry himself if the professor's previous stalking was any indication.

' _I have a feeling that this isn't Mad-Eye Moody at all,'_ Gabriel voiced when the week came to an end.

'I guessed as much,' Harry sighed internally. 'We need to confirm this. And I know just the two to help.'

He didn't have to wait long before Fred and George passed his hiding spot. Moody had headed into the library, no doubt trying to find Harry. From what the black haired teen had observed, Moody had a habit of skulking around places that Harry tended to frequent when not in the Chamber or the Gryffindor dorms. More evidence that he was stalking Harry, the teen grumbled silently. He didn't like the thought of the fake Moody knowing so much about his habits.

The twins, heading in to study for a prank or class (as despite popular belief, the twins did in fact study) yelped as Harry grabbed their arms and pulled them away from the library door and further into the corridor. Checking to see no one was around, Harry shrugged off the cloak.

Fred blinked at him before grinning. "You know, black haired brother of ours," he started.

"There are much easier ways of getting our attention," George finished, grin just as wide. They studied the cloak with interest.

Harry flashed them a grin. "You two wouldn't happen to have the map on you, would you?" He doubted that the answer was 'no'. The two redheads practically worshiped that map. Actually, come to think of it, had they ever told the twins who, exactly, the Marauder's were?

' _Not now,'_ Gabriel interrupted.

Right, Moody. Harry fought the urge to shake his head in effort to clear his thoughts and focused on the twins.

Fred was pulling the map out of his robe pocket along with his wand. "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good," the redhead tapped the wand on the parchment.

Instantly, the blank paper transformed into the magical map depicting the entire school. "Can I see that for a second?" Harry asked.

Fred handed it over before joining George in peering over Harry shoulder to see what he was doing. The best thing about the twins was that they were content to wait for explanations for the things Harry did.

Sure enough, there was no 'Alastor Moody' in the library though Harry knew for a fact that the man was still in there. "I knew it," he mumbled before frowning. "Wait here for a minute?"

Fred and George glanced at each other before shrugging. Harry grabbed his cloak and threw it over him before heading towards the library, map still open in his hands.

Third bookshelf from the door, Harry thought to himself as he slipped through the library doorway, barely dodging the exiting Ravenclaw prefect. _'That would have been fun to explain,'_ Gabriel muttered as they slipped deeper into the library.

Instead of turning into the correct bookshelf, Harry passed it and turned into the next row. Glancing down at the map, Harry confirmed the name. _Barty Crouch_ the bold lettering identified the man in the row next to his.

He turned and continued down the fourth row, stopping once he reached the end. Slowly rounding the end of the shelf, he peeked into the next row. In the place that the map proclaimed Barty Crouch to be, stood Mad-Eye Moody.

' _Sirius and Remus are never going to believe this,'_ Gabriel marveled as Harry stared down at the map and back up to Moody.

'Well,' Harry thought to himself as he exited to library and made his way back to the Twins. 'I suppose they can take comfort in the fact that they were partially right, in the end.'

' _Somehow, I don't think that's going to make them feel better._

* * *

It did not, in fact, make them feel better.

Fred and George didn't feel any better either, though Harry hadn't been expecting them to tag along. In hindsight, he really should have considering that he had spiked their curiosity when he'd asked for the map. Catching them up hadn't been easy, either.

For one, he needed to explain why Remus and Sirius felt the need to discuss possible perps with a fourteen year old. Harry wasn't entirely sure that they bought the 'to make sure I don't do something stupid' excuse he'd used. The twins were sharp, that was for sure. They were also rather annoyed on Harry's behalf. Thankfully, they consented to staying quiet while Harry caught Sirius and Remus up.

Sirius was fuming and flabbergasted at the same time. "Polyjuice Potion," he growled. "Fucking Polyjuice Potion. I can't believe it."

"Nor can I," Harry sighed. "I mean, your theory on Bartemius Crouch made sense but how does Polyjuicing himself as Mad-Eye Moody play into this? And what about the real Moody?"

Fred piqued up. "In his office," the redhead informed them. Harry turned to stare at him.

George grimaced. "He's been in his office nearly every time we look at the map; never leaves the place. We thought it was odd but we didn't look too much into it. Dad always told us Moody was off his rocker."

"Is that Fred and George?" Remus called.

"Hi Remus!" the twins called back.

' _We have made a huge mistake,'_ Gabriel commented as Harry felt the urge to facepalm.

"They're the ones with the map," Harry informed them. Sirius practically preened but kept quiet when Harry shook his head. Thankfully, the twins and his godfather kept silent, aware that this wasn't the time to ask how the other pair knew of the map.

"Anyways," Harry continued. "How does any of this fit into Crouch's plan for the tournament?"

Sirius frowned, troubled. "I don't like this," he informed Harry. "Something about this is off; Crouch is a bastard and there's little I would put past him, don't get me wrong. Yet kidnapping Mad-Eye and taking his place?"

"Sirius is right," Remus suddenly appeared in place of his godfather. _'Guess he didn't feel like being in the background this time,'_ Gabriel hummed. Harry ignored him. "Alastor Moody would have never been caught off guard by Crouch. And how would Crouch explain his sudden disappearance from the Ministry? Last time I checked, he was still going into work every day and we check often."

"Still at work?" Harry frowned and his eyes narrowed. "How can you be in two places at once?" he muttered.

"Time Turner?" Fred suggested.

"Maybe he has a twin!" George tossed out.

"Or maybe it's not Bartemius Crouch." Remus breathed.

Three pair of eyes locked onto the mirror, confused. It took Harry a moment to realize what Remus meant. "Barty Crouch," he whispered.

"I'm lost," Fred informed them all before looking at George. His twin just shrugged in response.

"Sirius, when exactly did Mrs. Crouch die?" Harry demanded. "And how long was it after the death of Barty Crouch?"

"Gred, I feel like we're missing something," George whispered.

"I think you're right, Forge." Fred whispered back.

Harry ignored them both. "Sirius?" he asked again.

"Not long," Sirius said, having taken the mirror back from Remus. "A week to a month at most." His voice was grave and grey eyes were dark with anger.

"His house elf was caught with the wand that cast the Dark Mark," Harry mumbled. "Crouch started acting strange not long after. His son dies in Azkaban and then so does his wife?"

"Bugger," George commented. Fred stayed silent, though the look on his face made it obvious that he was in agreement with George.

Remus appeared in the mirror, having reclaimed it from Sirius. "If a person dies under the influence of Polyjuice potion, they don't revert back," the werewolf informed them. "I'll do some digging but I suspect that Barty Crouch Jr. died the same day his parents came to see him for the last time."

"How'd he keep control of his son?" Harry asked. "Somehow, I don't think it would be easy to keep him out of the public eye."

Sirius shrugged. "No idea. I have a feeling it wasn't entirely through legal means."

"So there's a supposedly dead Death Eater son of the Ministry official running the Tournament posing as Mad-Eye Moody and stalking Harry. This same Death Eater is also likely the one that put Harry's name into the goblet and probably wants him dead." George summarized. "Why are we talking about this in secret and not with the Headmaster?"

Sirius blinked and Harry stared at the redheaded twin. "I suppose Dumbledore would probably want to know," Sirius mused though Harry could see the hesitance on his face.

Albus Dumbledore was a sore topic for all of them, Harry knew. For Sirius, Dumbledore had been someone he respected and trusted only to have the man believe the worst of him and do nothing as Sirius was thrown into prison. For Remus, he had even more mixed feelings on the man who had allowed him the option of coming to school and the man who had stood by while Sirius was imprisoned without a trial.

For Harry, he was the most incompetent person he'd ever met. In the four years that Harry had been in school, Dumbledore had stood by as numerous dangerous people had infiltrated the school and put the students and staff in harm's way. The man had put bait in the school filled with children for a Dark Lord, had failed to alert the proper authorities when students were being attacked and petrified, and was the reason that Harry had ended up with the Dursley's. He wasn't a bad man, Harry knew. The man's soul was a good indication of that. It was his history of bad decisions that had Harry wary of including him. And just how was he going to explain to someone why he had decided to stalk a professor in the first place? Sure, the library incident was weird but it was his soul that had Harry on edge.

Fred and George might have accepted that Harry had spent a week trailing the man because he'd been giving Harry a bad feeling but the Headmaster wouldn't. Not that Harry could fault the man for that as he would be right. "We'll take care of it," Remus decided from behind Sirius. "You three keep this to yourselves. It'll be best if we don't tip him off that we know he's not Moody."

Harry didn't like it. He nodded in agreement anyways.

* * *

"Do you think he'll actually be able to stay out of it?" Sirius asked after a few moments of silence.

Remus shrugged, his eyes giving away how worried he really was. "Harry has a bad habit of ending up in the middle of things, intentional or not. Somehow, I think this isn't going to be the exception to that rule."

"Bugger," Sirius groaned. Setting down the mirror on the table next to him, Sirius brought his hands up to his temples. This whole thing was giving him a headache. If this was going to be the norm, Sirius was going to have to seriously invest in some anti-anxiety potions and some headache cures. It was amazing that Harry had managed to survive this long without them, he mused. Or maybe it was just luck. He did vaguely remember Harry admitting that he'd been out of his league during his fight with the basilisk.

That stunt he pulled with the dragons only further cemented his theory that his godson was only alive because of luck. Sirius would never forget the horror of watching his godson in that arena and not being able to do anything. Dumbledore was lucky that Harry was okay; if he had been anymore injured than he was, the Headmaster would have been on the top of his 'kill' list.

At the moment, though, Sirius was more worried about Barty Crouch Jr. "I almost can't believe that Crouch broke his son out of jail," he said, annoyed.

Remus shrugged again before joining Sirius in his misery. "This is going to be hard to explain," the werewolf groaned. "Dumbledore isn't going to believe that we investigated Moody 'just because' or that we willingly brought Harry into it."

Yet another problem: just how were they going to explain this to Dumbledore without implicating Harry? Sirius was starting to wonder if life would have been this stressful if his godson had been normal. He had a feeling that it would have probably been worse, thinking about it. At least Harry had the advantage of being an Archangel and older than dirt on his side. He didn't want to think about what would happen if Harry had gone through all of this without that.

"We could always tell him about the map," Sirius offered after a moment of thought. "Say that Harry came to us after seeing that the map always identified Moody as 'Bartemius Crouch'. "

"That might work," Remus said after a moment of thinking it over. "It would be suspicious enough for him to come to us and it would keep Dumbledore from looking at things to closely." At Harry to closely, was what Sirius knew he meant.

The ex-convict didn't know why it was so important to them to keep Harry's status from the old Headmaster. Sure, the man made mistakes in the past and Sirius had been on the wrong side of one of them yet at the same time, Dumbledore was human. And Sirius wasn't completely innocent in that regard either. It had been his choice not to tell anyone who the real secret keeper was and it had been his choice to go after Pettigrew instead of staying with Harry and setting everything straight. That didn't change the fact that Dumbledore had failed him; it didn't even mean that Sirius would ever truly forgive the man.

It just meant that Albus Dumbledore wasn't perfect. And like it or not, they needed him in on this. Going after Moody on their own wasn't an option.

"I still don't like this," Sirius felt the need to say. "We might need him but I don't like bringing him in on this with Harry's life on the line."

While the Tournament might not kill Harry, it certainly could pose a danger to his secret. Making a show of studying nonstop to survive wasn't going to help if his godson ended up in a position that he needed to use knowledge that a fourteen year old shouldn't have or be able to do. The public could be just as smart as they were sometimes stupid and even if they didn't notice, the Hogwarts staff would.

Even now, Sirius could hear Flitwick's comments on Harry's performance from Minerva. Apparently, the power behind Harry's summoning charm that called his broom to him was something that his godson had not demonstrated in class before. Thankfully, they'd written it off as stress and constant studying in preparation for the Tournament.

Next time however they might not be so lucky. Remus and he both knew it. Sirius was willing to be that Harry knew it too.

"I don't like it anymore than you do." Remus said. "But we don't have to like it. We just have to make it work."

Sirius studied his long time friend before letting his face fall into his hands.

But what if they didn't? Sirius asked silently. What if making it work wasn't an option?

A hand settled on his right shoulder before squeezing. Sirius glanced up and locked eyes with Remus.

Then we'll make it one, the brown eyes said.

Sirius hoped that was true.


	45. Chapter 45

To the shock of everyone, himself included, Harry managed to keep out of the Moody Problem. Harry wasn't sure if that was because he was busy trying for figure out the clue for the Second Task or if he just got lucky, for once. Either way, he was just as surprised as the rest of the student body when he came in for breakfast one day and Moody was gone. In his place, smiling happily at them all was one Sirius Black.

"What's Sirius doing here?" Hermione whispered to him.

Harry shrugged, not wanting to say anything without getting the official story from Sirius just yet. Ron and Hermione were already going to be annoyed at being left out of the loop and Harry didn't know how much he'd be able to say without implicating himself at least somewhat.

Taking a seat, Harry managed to keep up a confused expression for the rest of the Great Hall. He hadn't really expected anything to be done on the Moody front for at least a few more days. It was obvious that he'd underestimated Sirius and Remus, now that he thought about it.

The whispers in the Great Hall resembled more of a rushing river more than actual whispers. Some didn't even bother keeping their voices down and were loudly speculating on the disappearance of Moody. Harry couldn't help but snicker at the more outrageous theories circulating the Great Hall. It was one of those cases were the truth was stranger than fiction, though the fiction was much more amusing to listen to. Honestly, a declared dead Death Eater kidnapping and posing as Madeye Moody only to be caught by a resurrected Archangel in the form of Harry Potter wasn't nearly as amusing as Moody being a spy for an Alien race bent on controlling the Earth.

"I think you've been reading too much science fiction," Harry informed a snickering Dean Thomas, the one responsible for that particular rumor.

"There is no such thing," Dean insisted, looking quite pleased with himself. Even if half the student population had no idea what an alien was, those in the know were certainly having a fun time with that one.

Hermione chocked back a laugh, clearing her throat instead as Ron tried to figure out what an alien was. So far, the redhead hadn't guessed the right answer and his guessing were getting more and more bizarre. Harry finally took pity on him.

"Aliens are sentient creatures that originate from a planet other than Earth," Harry whispered in his ear.

"Wait, what?" Ron turned wide eyes towards his dark haired friend. Harry nearly broke down in laughter at the look on his face.

"They're not real, Ron," Hermione finally said, not bothering to hold back her laughter anymore. "It's just a speculation made by muggles. No one has ever found any proof."

"Sometimes muggles report being abducted," Harry added, just to be as unhelpful as possible. Teasing Ron over muggle knowledge was always amusing.

Ron yelped.

"Harry!" Hermione laughed harder, ruining the scolding tone she'd been going for. "Honestly!"

Harry snickered and shrugged. Ron was just too easy sometimes. The redhead made a face at him before turning to Hermione, obviously intent on ignoring him for the rest of the meal.

' _Worth it,'_ Gabriel laughed. Harry agreed.

"May I have your attention please?" Dumbledore's voice boomed from the head table. The Great Hall didn't die down at all, in fact it sounded louder than before. Harry turned his attention onto the Headmaster, interested in how he was going to handle the added noise.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and he raised his wand to his mouth. "QUIET!" His voice boomed through the Great Hall and deafened half of the occupants.

' _Wow that was loud,'_ Gabriel grimaced. Harry was too busy covering his ears to bother acknowledging the comment. He definitely hadn't expected that.

Neither had anyone else. The Great Hall immediately became silent, everyone going quiet instantly and turning their attention onto the standing Headmaster. Dumbledore was still smiling happily though Harry could see amusement flashing in the old man's eyes instead of the normal twinkle. "Now that I have your attention, there is an announcement I would like to make."

"As I'm sure you've noticed, Professor Moody is not present for breakfast today. I am sad to say that this is because our professor has had an accident and will likely not be returning for the rest of the year." Dumbledore paused, letting them take that information in. "In his place, Sirius Black as offered to take over the Defense classes. As a former Auror and war veteran, Professor Black is quite qualified for this job. I hope that you will all show him the proper amount of respect during his time here with us."

' _Accident is certainly one way to describe it,'_ Gabriel mused. _'Though I would have been more clear on the accident. No one is going to buy that vague excuse.'_

He wasn't wrong, either. No one looked like they bought that Moody had an 'accident'. Anyone who had attended one of his classes knew what a paranoid bastard the man was. Harry glanced around and found quite a few people glancing in his direction.

"Are they looking at me because Sirius is my godfather or because they think I know what actually happened to Moody?" Harry wondered aloud.

"Both, most likely," Hermione sighed. "It's like they think you know everything that goes on in this school. Honestly, how would you know what happened with Moody?"

Harry kept his face neutral and nodded in agreement. Hermione frowned at him, her eyes narrowed. "I don't know where they get these ideas," he sighed, making sure to look put out over it all.

"Huh, you do know, don't you?" Ron blinked at him. Harry blinked back.

"I have no clue what you're talking about," he said evenly, putting on his most innocent expression.

Hermione snorted. "You'll be giving us a full explanation later," she informed him, pointing her fork in his direction.

' _Oh well,'_ Gabriel snickered. _'It's not like we actually expected them to buy that.'_

* * *

 

"I'm sorry, what?!" Hermione shrieked. For the third time.

"I'm not explaining it again!" Harry finally snapped. "I'm not going to suddenly change the story because you can't believe it."

Hermione huffed in response. Thankfully, Ron interrupted before she could begin a rant. "You have to admit, mate, it does sound rather out there. I'm surprised Fred and George have managed to keep quiet at all."

Harry just sighed. "I know," he finally admitted. "I'm just surprised I actually managed to mostly stay out of it. I kind of expected to end up in a life or death situation before this mess was taken care of."

Hermione frowned at him, concern obvious in her face and eyes. "It does seem a little too easy." She rubbed a hand over her face, a habit that she had started recently developing to calm herself down when something particularly upsetting happened.

"I'm half expecting to find out that Crouch escaped." Harry shrugged. "I mean, I suppose that Dumbledore could have decided to handle it himself but when has the Ministry ever done something useful? They managed to lose Pettigrew!"

"I'm with Harry," Ron finally spoke up. "There's more to this than we know. Nothing has ever been this easy!"

Hermione groaned but nodded. "We should speak to Sirius."

Speaking to Sirius ended up being harder than it should have been. Harry probably should have expected it yet he'd actually managed to lose track of the date. So before he was able to corner his godfather, news of the Yule Ball circled the school.

"I can't believe I almost completely forgot about Christmas," Harry marveled to himself after the announcement.

Ron chocked beside him while Hermione blinked in surprise. "How could you forget Christmas! It's next week!"

"I was more focused on the Tournament," Harry admitted.

"That was weeks ago!" Ron exclaimed.

"Well, then there was the thing with Moody," Harry trailed off.

"And you forgot what month it was," Hermione sighed. "I don't know why either of us are surprised by this. It has been an eventful few weeks. Though I'm not sure why you haven't heard of the Yule Ball before now. It was announced before the First Task."

"It was?" Harry asked, bewildered.

' _We did spend a significant amount of time in the library,'_ Gabriel pointed out. _'It easily could have been announced during one of those outings. Cedric seems to be completely lost too, so I'm leaning towards that.'_

The Hufflepuff did look like a deer in the headlights, Harry mused. Not that Cedric would know what a headlight was but that was besides the point. "Cedric doesn't seem to have heard this before either so we were probably studying in the library."

Hermione turned to look at the older boy and sighed. "You're both hopeless. Everyone in the school has already gotten dates. It'll be a miracle if you find someone to go with in time. Not to mention the champions have to open the ball."

Harry stopped eating and stared at her. "They want us to dance?!"

' _We suck at dancing!'_ Gabriel yelped.

Hermione suddenly looked more amused than resigned. "The waltz," she added in with a wicked smile.

Harry whined. "I suck at dancing!"

"We have to ask someone to go with?!" Ron whimpered. The redhead seemed to have just processed that part of Hermione's statement.

Hermione looked at them both and laughed. "You're hopeless!" she giggled. "No Ron, you don't have to have a date. You don't even have to attend."

Ron gave her an unimpressed look. "Mum would skin me if I ditched," he grumbled just loud enough for them to hear. Harry winced, recognizing the truth behind that statement. "And she'd never let it go if I didn't ask someone with."

Hermione winced. "I'm sure you'll find someone," she tried to reassure him. Turning her attention back to Harry, she grinned. "You too. In fact, if I know that look you already have someone in mind."

Harry did, in fact, have someone in mind. "The announcement said only fourth years and up could come without a date, right?" At least, that was what the Headmaster had said in his reminder announcement.

Hermione nodded. "Everyone else has to come with a date."

"Then I know just who to ask!" Harry grinned brightly at her before standing up and exiting the Great Hall without looking back.

' _This is going to be fun.'_

* * *

 

Luna, of course, agreed right away. She was pleasantly surprised by his question and didn't stop grinning for the entire day.

The only real problem Harry found with the whole thing was not being able to go home for the holidays. He'd been excited about spending his first Christmas with Sirius and Remus; he'd gotten their presents months ago. And it would be the first Christmas he wasn't surrounded by Weasley's on all sides as well.

' _At least Sirius will be at the castle too,'_ Gabriel tried to comfort him though he was just as annoyed by this development.

'True but that leaves Remus alone,' Harry grumbled internally.

' _We could always sic Mrs. Weasely on him,'_ Gabriel pointed out. _'I'm sure she'd be glad to kidnap him and hold him hostage for the course of the holidays.'_

"Good point," Harry mused aloud.

"Are you talking to yourself again, Harry?" Luna asked curiously from over by the books. They had traveled back down into the chamber again and were exploring the study. It was a Hogsmeade weekend, so no one would notice that they were gone for a while. It had been a good period of time since they had come back down as well.

"Yup," Harry grinned at her. "I make good points once in a while."

' _You bet I do!'_ Gabriel sassed back.

Luna giggled at them, always seeming to know what Gabriel was saying or at least the general gist of it. It had bothered the at first though they had come to accept that part of Luna's quirks.

"Any luck with those books?" Harry changed the subject. He'd learned that focusing on the things that Luna could do just ended up with a headache, no matter if he ever figured out the reason behind her abilities or not.

Luna gave him a knowing look before smiling and picking up what looked to be a rather old journal. Harry frowned at it for a moment, no recognizing it from when he'd combed the book shelf after he'd gotten stuck down here. "It's a really enlightening read," she told him dreamily and tossed it to him.

Harry caught the book in surprise and flipped it open. _'That's not possible,'_ Gabriel breathed.

It wasn't any normal journal, Harry could tell that right away. The text was partially written in Enochian, for one. "Azrael?" he mumbled, the name feeling like something he should know but was just out of his reach.

Luna turned to look at him, surprise flashing across her face. "You can read the inscription?" she asked, eyes wide.

Harry glanced up at her and let out a wince. He probably shouldn't have said that out loud. It was obvious Luna had been intending for him to read the English sections. "I can." He acknowledged. A pleading look had Luna letting the matter drop for now before he scanned through the first section, which was written completely in English.

_**If you are reading this journal, left here in this carven until it finds the hands in which it was intended, I ask that you do not go any further in reading this. I ask that once you have finished this passage, you set the book down from where it was found to be forgotten and left untouched.** _

_**I write this with the knowledge that one day, it will find its way to the proper recipient.** _

_**I, the humble sibling and underling to those far greater than I shall ever be, leave this book to reach the hands of my brother, the Trumpeter and soothsayer.** _

Gabriel and Harry sucked in a breath, eyes wide in realization. This book, found by Luna from wherever it had been hidden away, was meant for _him._ _Them._

_**Brother, when you read this, know that your path was always meant to lead here. I know not if you remember me, remember us all, at the time you read this. Perhaps this will find you before you are back to yourself, before you are fully aware of all that has happened.** _

_**Know this, your death and resurrection were always to take place as they did. You were always meant to find your way to place, to become aware of the problems that plague this Earth. The breach here consumes the inhabitants, twisting them in ways that were never meant to be twisted, in ways not even the Lightbringer would have dared try at his worst.** _

_**Brother, you have been through so much. You are the only of the four to come out of it for the better and perhaps not even our Father knew in what ways you were to change. Yet this has always been the plan, since before the Lightbringer first lost his way.** _

_**You surely have noticed the similarities between your situation and that of the Human Fallen. It was not by mistake that these similarities exist, brother. This, the change to humanity and the lessons that it would teach us, has always been our fate. A fate that the dead were always to experience. A fate that all who have perished will share in.** _

_**You are not alone brother. I wish that I could be there to comfort you, as you have comforted me. Alas, I cannot and for that I apologize.** _

_**It is not meant to be, perhaps it never will be. I cannot be sure for that is not my ability.** _

_**Yet you are not alone. You are never alone, not even when it seems as if that is the case.i cannot tell you everything. I cannot even give you a hint to it all. It has been forbidden.** _

_**Brother, I worry about what is to come. There are dangers on the horizon, dangers that our Father wishes to prevent, to keep from gaining strength. Dangers that began with the Fall. With your power so limited, I worry that these dangers will be too much for you.** _

_**The written word has never been my strength and I find myself having trouble explaining, translating my thoughts into the limited words of this language. I, however, am forced to try for I am the only of our many siblings to know the truth of this knowledge without experience. Not even the Pale Rider knows the truth of our deaths and it pains me to keep this knowledge to myself. To withhold comfort from our siblings with each death we experience. It is hard, to watch our siblings grieve for those we have lost and be unable to comfort them.** _

_**Yet I do as I must, as our Father orders. And I patiently await the day were the truth will no longer be mine to guard. You will be the first. The first to rise again, to awaken and know the lesson for which you were meant.** _

_**I watch over you now, even as you go about your human lives, unaware of the truth. Of what is missing though you know something is. I will still be watching once this journal reaches you, yet I will never show myself. It is not my place to interfere.** _

_**I wish you well, brother. This journal, given to me to leave for you, will reveal its secrets as you need. Do not rush it, brother. Time will tell all.** _

_**Do not call for me, Trumpeter. I will not come.** _

"Harry?" Luna asked, somewhat hesitant. She was worried, Harry acknowledged to himself though he couldn't bring himself to comfort her as he usually would.

Gabriel was painfully silent and the quiet rang loudly in their shared minds. It was a silence that Harry wasn't used to, didn't know how to deal with. Gabriel was always there, always a small buzzing in the back of his head even when he wasn't talking. It was almost as if the Archangel had disappeared entirely.

"Harry, is something wrong?" Luna asked again. "Is it that book?" It was uncharacteristic of Luna to come out and ask. To lose all pretense of a dream character, her face serious in a way he'd not seen it before. In a way that disturbed him to see at all.

The buzzing returned, Gabriel seemingly brought back from his shocked state by Luna's presence. "I don't know." Harry told her, not even lying. Not really.

He didn't know Azrael. He didn't know the Pale Rider or the Lightbringer. He didn't know what plan was being discussed. He didn't have even a vague recollection of comforting this unknown sibling.

Which is why he didn't know why he felt the stirring of pain betrayal in his chest. Or why, for just a second, he felt like screaming in grief and rage.

Harry dropped the book, letting it hit the floor with a soft thud.

Gabriel didn't say a word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, that's the new chapter.
> 
> Thank you all for the well wishes! My surgery went well, though it took a lot longer for me to get my underarm healed all the way and by the time I could move it again without any pain, I was caught up in doctor's appointments and college stuff. 
> 
> Also, my best friend is moving and I've been helping her pack and slowly move boxes to the new house. Add the fact that my family is looking for a new place as well, then factor in getting ready for dorm move in and I don't have time for much else, let alone writing. I still have a whole bunch of things to get for my dorm and I've been doing a lot of sale hoping in order to get really cheap supplies. And I still need my textbooks...ugh... 
> 
> My move in day is the 31st. I'm hoping to have another chapter out during the time between move in and the beginning of classes on the 6th. No promises though. 
> 
> And we're going to bring over another load of boxes so I have to cut this short.
> 
> Feel free to ask any and all questions you have and I'll do my best to answer though it may take me a while. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things soon.
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	46. Chapter 46

Days later, Harry still didn't know what to think about the letter and he also didn't know how to explain his somewhat severe reaction to Luna, who had been concerned when she had noticed his 'other self' disappearing. He didn't even know what to think of the fact Luna had noticed Gabriel's brief absence. It seemed his didn't know a lot.

Gabriel was also silent, there but not speaking no matter what Harry tried. He was starting to get concerned about it and didn't stop mentally pestering the other, hoping to get at least some response. Even if it was only to tell him to leave him alone. He was starting to miss the weird relationship that he had with his other half. He pointedly ignored the implications of that.

"Is everything alright, Harry?" Luna asked, concerned. She was dressed in a flowing blue dress that sparkled in the candlelight. Harry had sent the dress to her as a present so she'd have something to wear at the ball. The opal amulet sat heavily in his pocket and on his mind.

He gave her a strained smile. "I will be," he told her, not sure if he was lying or not in his response. "Are you ready?"

Luna didn't look convinced but she nodded. He offered her his arm, which she giggling took and they started making their way to the Great Hall. He and Cedric had agreed to meet up before the Ball and talk about the task. Cedric had figured out the Second Task and they wanted to discuss it without the other Champions around.

Harry had gotten the note to meet him yesterday. Having been so distracted by everything that had been going on in the last few weeks, he'd completely forgotten about the task and the golden egg that was sitting on top of his trunk in his room. Harry grimaced at the thought. He hadn't even gotten around to opening the thing yet, that was how distracted he'd been in the past few days.

"There are a lot of Nargles tonight," Luna commented airily. Harry glanced around, seeing nothing just like he had expected. Sometimes he wasn't sure what Luna was talking about. Thankfully for him, Gabriel was just as confused as he was most of the time so he probably wasn't missing invisible creatures around them.

"Thanks for agreeing to come with me, Luna." Harry smiled at her, letting the strain and frustration of the last few days dissipate. He was going to have a good time tonight if it killed him. One night of nothing but fun wasn't too much to ask for, he grumbled to himself.

_'One night,'_ Gabriel agreed. Harry jumped, surprised by the sudden comment and a grin spread across his face.

'It's about time,' he thought back only a little annoyed. Really.

_'I had some things that I needed to think over,'_ Gabriel murmured. _'You're right, though. One night probably won't kill us to relax. Probably.'_

'You're so optimistic.' Harry replied sarcastically.

_'Shut up and pay attention to Luna. She's saying something.'_

Harry blinked and glanced at Luna, who was indeed saying something. "Your voice is back," she repeated when he grinned sheepishly at her.

_'One day I will figure out how she does that,'_ Gabriel vowed. Harry rather doubted they'd ever know.

"Yeah. I still don't know what was wrong with him." Harry admitted.

"Perhaps something in that book you read upset him?" Luna offered, her voice still airy despite the legitimate suggestion.

Harry nodded in agreement, that was the logical conclusion. Harry just didn't know which part of the note had set the other off and Gabriel wasn't telling. He wasn't going to ask and risk the other shutting him out again either. It had felt like he was walking in a gray haze for the last few days and Harry wasn't eager to go through that again.

"Harry!" Cedric waved at him from the meeting spot. Next to him was Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw chaser. Harry waved at them as they got closer to the duo. Cho looked surprised to see Luna with him and grimaced politely.

'Isn't she one of the girls she pranked?' Gabriel asked. Harry squinted and hummed in agreement. She looked a lot different in her dress and make-up yet there was no doubt she was one of the girls Harry had targeted for bullying Luna. He, smartly, kept quiet about that little fact as Luna gave Cho an airy greeting.

"Hello, Cedric." Harry grinned at him. "This is my friend Luna Lovegood."

Cedric raised his eyebrows, obviously questioning why he hadn't introduced her as his date. Luna answered for him. "Harry asked me so I could attend the ball," Luna added, making sure to look around with wide eyes.

"She's a third year," Harry told them, though he was mostly informing Cedric. Cho, no doubt, already knew. "I didn't really have anyone I wanted to ask so I thought I'd take Luna. Neville's taking Ginny already so she's the only one that would have been left behind."

Cedric nodded in understanding before smiling at Luna. "It's nice to meet you," he told her sincerely. Luna beamed at him before going back to her humming in silence. Harry didn't bother to question why she was pretending to be more eccentric than usual and turned to Cedric. What Luna did wasn't for him to question.

"You said that you figured out the clue?" Harry asked before grinning. "I kind of forgot about it, if I'm being honest."

Cedric rolled his eyes while Cho gasped at his admittance. "You probably were distracted by discovering whatever it was that got Moody replaced," he sighed. Harry didn't bother denying it, much to the listening Ravenclaw Seeker's surprise. Luna just shrugged away the information as another of Harry's oddities.

"To summarize, something is going to be taken from us and stuck in the bottom of the Black Lake We have an hour to track it down and find it." Cedric rubbed his temples. "These people are really trying to kill us."

Harry just groaned while Gabriel cursed. As if the school year hadn't been annoying enough, now they needed to figure out what to use to breath underwater. Somehow, he figured the bubblehead charm would be a bit too obviously out of his skills for him to get away with. He refused to use gillyweed, that was for sure. He absolutely hated that stuff.

Cedric nodded in agreement. "At least there aren't any more dragons," the Hufflepuff offered, grimacing.

"Somehow that doesn't make me feel better," Harry grumbled. "Why am I doing this again?"

"Because somehow, probably the Fake-Moody, entered your name in order to kill you," Luna replied dreamily, smiling at something Harry couldn't see. Cedric and Cho stared at her.

"Thank you, Luna," Harry smiled. "That's exactly why I'm doing this. Do I want to know how you figured out Moody was a fake?"

"The nargles told me," she answered before finding something by the wall fascinating and wandering off.

Cedric groaned from beside him. "Every time I think you can't get any stranger…"

Harry smirked.

Cho gaped at them all.

* * *

Harry officially hated whoever had decided to create the Yule Ball. He'd fallen on his face during Champion's dance and he'd stepped on Luna's feet twice now.

Thank god Luna was a better dancer than he was or else he'd have probably done something even more embarrassing by now. As it was, Hermione and Ron were never going to let him live this down. Not to mention Sirius looked like he'd just discovered one of the most hilarious things ever. Which, I his godfather's mind, an Archangel falling on his face in front of an entire school probably qualified.

"I hate everything about this," Harry bemoaned to the table where his face was currently leaning against.

"I know you said you were bad at dancing," Hermione giggled. "But I thought you were exaggerating."

Harry picked his head up from the desk just long enough to glare at her angrily. Her date, Victor Krum of all people, looked amused at his misery as well. Harry glared at him too.

"I almost wish cameras could work here," Hermione added before erupting into full-blown laughter. Ron snickered from beside' Krum. He'd decided to come without a date, having been too nervous to try asking anyone.

"It is most 'umorous," Fleur Delacour added. "You 'ave, 'ow do you say, two right feet?"

"Left feet," Hermione corrected. "And yes, he does."

"You all suck," Harry complained. "I feel so betrayed."

_'This is why I hate dancing.'_ Harry didn't disagree.

They just laughed at him some more. "That's it," Harry decided. "I don't have to put up with this." He got up and looked questioningly at Luna. The third year looked highly amused and stood up. Harry offered his arm to her, which she took with a smile.

"Have fun," Hermione grinned at him, having more fun teasing him that he thought she should. Ron didn't look like he regretted his amusement either.

Harry huffed at them all and with Luna, moved out of the Great Hall. Once they were safely out of the room, Harry turned to Luna questioningly.

The girl shook her head. "There's a beetle on your shoulder," she offered, her voice still dreamy.

Harry looked towards his shoulder, surprised to find that there really was a beetle on his shoulder. "Huh," he frowned at the small bug. It was glowing a bright green, which was odd for a beetle.

_'Something's off with that bug,'_ Gabriel muttered, suspicious. Harry felt himself agreeing. He'd seen a lot of bugs since he'd gained the ability to see magic and none of them had glowed with magic before. Another thought occurred to him.

"How is it still alive?" Harry wondered. "The cold weather should have killed all the bugs by now."

The beetle immediately started fluttering and zipped around his head before darting away back into the Great Hall. "That was weird," Harry decided.

"The nargles say it's safe," Luna informed him. Harry didn't bother questioning it and shrugged. No doubt the beetle was some sort of magical being and that was why Luna didn't trust it.

"Chamber it is." Harry agreed.

* * *

The entrance to the Chamber was, as always, bland. Without the bones and no portraits, the Chamber looked half-finished and empty. The few things they had saved were still slowly being restored by them both and nothing had been put back up yet.

"What did you want to talk about?" Luna asked, having decided to be direct with her curiosity. She had been giving him questioning glances all night and his wings had been twitching non-stop under the scrutiny.

Harry slipped his hand into the pocket of his robe. Pulling out the opal amulet he offered it to her. "Merry Christmas," he grinned, handing it over.

Luna stared at the carved stone in surprise. To everyone else, it would look like a fancy carved opal. To them, they could see the glow of the runes that betrayed to power behind it. Harry's, Gabriel's, Grace glowed brightly from the runes he'd carved.

Luna took the amulet and slowly studied it in her hands. After a moment, she lifted the enchanted chain it hung from and placed it around her neck, smiling. She was obviously stunned and pleased by the early gift. "Thank you," she whispered, bringing a hand up to touch the cool stone that hung around her neck.

"The runes act as a protection against anyone trying to invade your mind," Harry told her.

She cocked her head at him, frowning. The question in her eyes was apparent and Harry grimaced. Now came the hard part.

_'Well, she can't react any worse than Sirius?_ ' Gabriel's attempt at comfort would have worked better if he hadn't ended it in a question.

Harry took in a deep breath. "I'm Harry Potter but that isn't who I've always been. In my first life, my name was Gabriel."

And he began talking, telling her everything.

* * *

_**Meanwhile, at the Burrow:** _

This was all Harry's fault; Remus was sure of it.

There he was, minding his own business and planning on how to send his gifts to both Harry and Sirius at Hogwarts. He hadn't been able to decide if he was going to send them together or apart and he'd been debating on the pros and cons of both options when Molly Weasley had appeared from the Floo.

He'd then been forcibly grabbed, a few weeks' worth of thing packed into a trunk along with his presents for the holidays, and forced through the Floo. Bewildered and somewhat unnerved by his sudden kidnapping, Remus had been guided by a sheepish Arthur to Bill's room, where he had been told he would be staying for the course of the winter holidays.

Remus had protested the sudden displacement but Molly was hearing none of it. Resigned, Remus accepted his current predicament with only a slight bit of annoyance. How Molly had learned that he'd be spending the Holidays alone had baffled him and his first thought had been to blame Sirius.

On further speculation, Sirius wouldn't be cruel enough to sick Molly on him just to make sure he wasn't lonely. If he was going to contact anyone in the Weasley family it would be Arthur, who wouldn't kidnap him at the first indication he was lonely.

Harry, on the other hand, definitely would. The teenage archangel would have no hesitance to sick Molly on him if he thought Remus was going to end up alone on a holiday. Especially as he considered the Weasley's family. Remus supposed it had only been a matter of time before Harry found a reason to force them to bond with the Weasley's without the teen around. Harry probably wouldn't even realize that was what he was doing.

Remus only wished that Sirius was here to experience this with him. He almost felt bad for the dog animagus. Sirius would likely be blindsided completely by the matriarch once Harry found a reason for her to kidnap his godfather.

Molly dragged him out of his thought by piling some more sausage in front of him. Apparently, she agreed with Harry and Sirius that Remus was far too skinny. The hypocrites.

Remus smiled politely and began eating the sausage. At least he got great cooking out of this whole experience.

It almost made everything worth it.

Almost.


	47. Chapter 47

The revelation of Harry's status as Gabriel and the following conversation had gone surprisingly well and horrible at the same time. Luna had remained in a state of shock for what seemed like hours before her Ravenclaw characteristics manifested in the form of questions. Unending, long winded questions about everything and anything Luna could think of. It was a trying experience and Harry almost wished that it had gone more like what his conversation with Sirius had been. He really wasn't prepared for the reality that was Luna Lovegood, no matter how much he had thought he would be.

Luna had, apparently, been questioning his species for quite a while. Angels, including Archangels, were the only winged creature that she had dismissed due to the fact he was in a very human body and definitely the original Harry Potter. That hadn't meant that she hadn't done her research on them nonetheless.

The Wizarding World was surprisingly prejudiced against the very idea that angel could exist. Considering how many creatures they had documented as real and the amount of newly confirmed species that had been previously unknown that were registered by the year, when the subject of angels came up they shot the idea down.

The pureblood culture was deep rooted in the Pagan traditions and with the slightly otherworldly aspect of their own magic, they had dismissed the muggle religion has baseless. The gods of old they could prove existed. Heaven, angels, and God? The angels and their Creator had never really spent much time on this Earth so their influence was limited and hard to see if you didn't know what to look for.

Harry's own tree was one of the few physical manifestations of angelic presence on this planet, with Harry himself being another. So Luna had been forced to turn to muggle literature to research the angels and hadn't gotten far after reading a few religious texts.

Answering her questions wasn't as hard as it should have been. Whenever a subject he was uncertain of the details came up, Gabriel would fill in the rest immediately. Harry ended up learning just as much from this has Luna did. It was a nice experience, talking about this with someone outside of Sirius and Remus.

The really tricky part was explaining to Luna why he was waiting to tell Hermione and Ron. The Ravenclaw wasn't completely satisfied with his reasons though she had thankfully decided to let it go for now. Harry had no doubt that she would be bringing it up in the future.

'We should probably go to bed.' Gabriel suggested. Harry ignored him in favor of the journal on his lap. So far, nothing in the book was legible other than the letter to them on the first page. It was Enochian, that much he could tell, he just couldn't read it. Something had been done to the pages to make the words incomprehensible to both himself and Gabriel. 'We aren't going to get anything out of that book until He's ready for us to.'

Gabriel had decided that the only reason they couldn't read the book was that God currently wasn't allowing them too. Which was a subject Harry wasn't all that willing to touch at the moment considering he was still wrapping his head around the angel thing. Throwing the fact that he now had a living Father who had apparently invented child abandonment along with creating the universe was not going to be easy to accept. Add in the lack of communication during what was apparently the apocalypse (Gabriel had refused to go into any detail on that when it had come up during the conversation with Luna) and had withheld information about what really happened when an angel died made the subject even more complicated than it already was.

Harry sighed before moving to close the book. Gabriel was right and Harry knew it. He also hated it.

He paused when the book heated in his hand. 'Be patient,' the Enochian now read at the very top of the page.

Harry glared at it, annoyed.

Gabriel cursed.

* * *

"Harry!" Ron's voice exclaimed from above him. "Wake up Harry!"

Harry groaned and tried to ignore the redheaded boy. He'd been up most of the night with Luna in the Chamber and he so didn't want to wake until at least noon.

"Leave this to me," another voice said. Harry ignored it though the voice was oddly familiar. He just couldn't place it...

Water splash on his face, cold and shocking. Harry lashed out with his foot and caught a hard mass, which slammed to the floor. Opening his eyes, Harry glared at his gasping godfather who was holding his gut and moaning on the floor. Ron was to the right of the bed, laughing his ass off at them both. "Tried to wake you up myself," he replied unrepentantly to Harry, grinning at the dark haired teen.

Harry huffed, annoyed at his friend before raising an eyebrow at his downed godfather. Sirius was pouting on the floor, still holding his gut. "Was that really necessary?" He asked the man. Gabriel grumbled in their head, more annoyed at their rude awakening than Harry was. Not that the reaction surprised him any. They were finally making progress in their dreams, getting to the point where the planets had started being created.

"Worth it, pup." Sirius grinned at him, pout dissipating. "Totally worth it."

"Common on Harry!" Ron interrupted and started towards the door. "Present time!"

_'Oh yeah,'_ Gabriel muttered. _'It's Christmas, isn't it?'_

Harry blinked before grinning. Shaking off the last remnants of the dream, he grabbed his wand from the bedside table and quickly cast a drying charm on himself and the bedspread. Sirius grumbled at the vanishing of his work before heaving himself from the floor. "I'll see you downstairs, pup." The dog animagus grinned at him.

Harry rolled his eyes as he watched his godfather leave before moving to get dressed. He probably wouldn't have bothered any other time however he wouldn't put it past his godfather to decide to drag him out of the castle before he could get dressed. _'He would, too,'_ Gabriel snickered.

'Sometimes I worry about your sense of humor,' Harry sighed internally.

_'You do realize that it's your sense of humor too, right?'_ Harry ignored the response and grabbed his shoes. He really didn't feel like wearing them though he did grab them for the just in case scenario that Sirius decided they were going out. Likely to meet up with Remus, if nothing else.

_'I wonder how he's doing, with the Weasley's?'_ Gabriel mused.

Harry grinned. He had been wary of leaving Remus alone for the holiday, mostly due to the fact that the werewolf had no doubt been spending holidays alone since Halloween of 1981. Sirius was the same, though Harry didn't think the man had been paying attention to holidays during Azkaban. However, Sirius was here while Remus was decidedly not.

Ron had actually been the one that cemented the idea to involve his mother. Harry had asked him if his mother would mind, not wanting to ask if it was going to be a problem from the redheaded family. Ron had promptly snorted and informed him that his mother would be thrilled to have another person to feed. Apparently, Remus was too skinny according to her (though Harry was as well, according to Mrs. Weasley).

'How mad at us do you think he is?' Harry wondered.

_'He'll get over it.'_

'That wasn't an answer though Harry knew what his other self meant.

"Come on, Harry!" Ron's voice jarred Harry from his thoughts.

Dashing down the stairs, he grinned when he saw that the common room was empty except for them. The rest of Gryffindor had cleared out after the Yule ball, as parents picked them up from Hogsmeade and took them home for the rest of the holiday break. "Merry Christmas," Sirius grinned at him.

"Merry Christmas," Harry smiled.

* * *

The opening of presents, unlike the years before, was more a free for all than turn-by-turn based. Ron and the other present Weasley's had wasted no time before they dove into their presents. Even Ginny had pounced on the pile with a happy smile.

Harry watched the chaos with a grin, more than happy to observe them opening their own gifts before he started on his own. All of his presents had been well received so far; the twins had gotten a copy of the Marauder's personal pranking book (Sirius had been more than happy to copy it for him once Harry had explained the twins' idolization of the Marauder's to the man), Ron had gotten a set of new Quidditch gear, Hermione had a new book on Ancient Runes in modern magic, Ginny was given a necklace laced with protective runes (not that she knew that), and Sirius had the newest addition of Quidditch through the ages. His godfather had bemoaned missing the most interesting changes and games while in Azkaban so he'd been ecstatic upon opening the gift.

"Are you going to just sit there watching us all day or are you going to open those gifts?" Sirius asked, amused by Harry's observation of them all.

Harry grinned at the man before turning to his own decently sized pile. From the twins, he'd gotten a beautiful set of carving knives, made especially for rune carving. Harry stared at the gift, wondering how they'd ever been able to afford these. The twins just gave him matching secretive grins when he looked to them questioningly.

It became even more obvious that they'd really gone all out on presents this year. Ginny got a rather pricy book on self-defense spells and Ron had been given what looked to be a brand new chess set, freshly enchanted from the way it was packaged. They had probably gotten the money from selling their products, now that he was thinking about it. They'd definitely been doing decently if they managed to get enough money together to buy presents of this quality. Hermione's disapproving look meant she'd come to the same conclusion.

Speaking of Hermione, the bushy haired girl had gotten him a book on advanced runes. Clearly he wasn't all that subtle when it came to his interest in the subject as he found another book on Rune Applications from Bill. Charlie had sent him an updated book on Magical Creatures, which was probably a comment on how many 'pets' he seemed to obtain of the magical variety. Harry decided to ignore it and enjoy the information in the book.

Ron and Ginny had pooled together some money and bought him what looked to be a knife sharpening block, probably to help maintain the throwing knives he'd gotten from the twins as well as his new carving knives. Harry hadn't really used the throwing knives enough to need a sharpening block as he'd been busy working with his sword, but the thought was there and he appreciated it. Either way, it would come in handy now that he had two knife sets to maintain.

Shaking his head when he realized the twins weren't about to give up how'd they'd gotten the money, he turned to reveal the rest of his presents from the brightly colored paper that held them. The present was from Percy. Having graduated last year, the third oldest Weasley child wasn't among the group. It was strange having Christmas without the former Head Boy though Harry felt rather warm that Percy had made sure to send them all gifts anyways, especially since he was probably busy with his job. The new department of the Ministry was no doubt still going through heaps of case files and inmate registers to make sure no one else had been imprisoned without trial.

Percy had gotten him a pocket watch. Harry blinked stupidly at the small devise, confused about the meaning behind the gift.

_'Er, is this supposed to be a comment on our punctuality?'_ Gabriel asked, just as bemused with the gift as he was.

Sirius was the first to notice him observing the gift, speaking up when a few minutes past by and Harry had yet to move on. "What is that, pup?"

"A pocket watch," Harry answered easily, still studying it. There was something off about the way it shimmered in his vision. There was definitely magic on the item yet Harry could seem to tell what kind of magic it was.

"Who sent you a pocket watch?" Ron asked, turning his attention from his own presents.

"Percy," Harry answered, looking up at his best friend in bemusement. "Either there's something magical about it or he's making a comment on my punctuality. I'm honestly not sure which one it is."

It was well known that Harry was rather easily distracted and lost track of time whenever he wasn't in classes. He'd been late many times because of it. And now that he and Luna were exploring the Chamber, it had become even worse than it had been in previous years. The idea of Percy sending him a pocket watch after hearing about his even worse time keeping skills, wasn't farfetched.

Sirius held out a hand, motioning for him to hand it over. The wizard easily flicked open the watch and frowned at the un-astronomical ('muggle') clock face. "There is something weird about it. Did he send you a note?"

Harry nodded. It had been one of the things that really jumped out at his attention when he'd been opening the gift. "Just to keep it on me at all times and a Merry Christmas." He wasn't surprised that the note was so short, though. Percy didn't seem to be one for sending letters. Harry only ever saw him do so over the summer when communicating with work or his secret girlfriend that he was pretending that he didn't have (though they all knew he did). Other than that, he mostly relied on Ron or the Twins to communicate with Molly and Arthur.

"Strange." Sirius mused. "I'd write him and ask him about it. It certainly doesn't look harmful. I'll send an owl to Moony and have him as Molly or Arthur about it."

"Moony?" The twins asked, having stopped everything they were doing at the name. Harry grinned. He'd been waiting to see how long it would take them to catch on, after he realized he'd never informed them. He'd been hoping for another week, though. He'd purposely kept it from Sirius that the twins had no idea he was Padfoot. It was rather benign as pranks go but the look of shock on their faces was hilarious so it was worth the payback he was no doubt going to experience.

_'Priceless,'_ Gabriel snickered in their head. As unplanned pranks went, this one was certainly going to be interesting.

"Remus," Sirius waved the question away, no doubt assuming Harry hadn't given away who was who.

"Alright," Harry nodded. He tucked the pocket watch into his pocket and turned to the rest of his gifts.

From Remus, he'd gotten a death threat that would be carried out if he ever sicced Molly Weasley on him again ('So totally worth it' Gabriel cackled. Harry found himself agreeing.) as well as a nice set of fountain pens that he'd gotten from a muggle shop. It was well known that Harry hated using quills so he found the gift rather thoughtful. Even if he was stuck using the glorified feathers on tests, at least his notes and essays would be a lot more legible. He could imagine his professor's relief when they discovered the difference.

Sirius' gift had to be one of his favorites (only really beaten by the rune carving knives). It was a small amulet, the stone no bigger than a muggle pence. It was covered with runes and glowed a soft blue-green to his eyes. The color of the stone itself was multiple shades of blue twirling around each other. Harry had never seen anything like it. "What does it do?"

Sirius puffed out in pride. "It's a protection amulet," the man flat out lied. Harry blinked at him, almost tempted to frown, when the man continued. "We haven't had any luck with most Occlumency for you so I got this commissioned. It'll act as your barriers instead of you having to build them."

_'Wow, he is really good at lying,'_ Gabriel interjected. Harry could hear the grin in the Archangel's voice. _'If I hadn't known he was lying, I would have so bought that.'_

Harry would have bought it too if it hadn't been for the small change in the man's soul, signaling them that he wasn't being truthful at all. It was almost scary how good Sirius was at passing a lie off as a truth. This was the first he'd ever heard that he was, supposedly, trying to learn Occlumency though Ron and Hermione looked as if this was old news.

_'That explanation will definitely give us a cover when people find out that they can't break into our mind,'_ Gabriel added, grinning. _'It'll definitely explain away what happens to people when they try it as well. It's beyond obvious that we aren't using Occlumency.'_

Harry nodded seriously at his godfather, making a show of slipping the amulet on. Sirius' eyes gleamed with satisfaction that was only somewhat faked. "Thanks, Sirius." He'd corner the man later to demand an explanation as to what the amulet actually did.

* * *

The rest of the day went quickly. Sirius had indeed decided that they were going to meet Remus and had made the brilliant decision that everyone else was coming with too. Having to reign in both Sirius and the twins had made the day that much more interesting for Harry and Remus. Harry had developed a twitch whenever the three stood next to each other for more than two minutes.

The two redheaded menaces had figured out that Sirius was a Marauder and that Harry had known. The pout they both directed at him made Harry snicker before he shrugged. Sirius had caught on and was having the time of his life watching the Twins try to figure out which on he was. They knew that Moony was Remus yet that still left three other's. Wormtail was quickly discounted after the dark anger at the name had settled around both Remus and Sirius.

Harry didn't doubt that the twins had put together who the rat was right then and there. Honestly, how many rat animagi could there be that were friends with the two Marauders during school? They'd quickly dispelled the negative energy by casually mentioning all the Hell they had put 'Scabbers' through during the twelve years that Pettigrew had lived with them.

After that, their moods had lightened and Sirius spent the rest of the day dragging them throughout Hogsmeade and tormenting unsuspecting members of the small town with small pranks. Getting carried away as he was by the twins helping, Harry lost count of the amount of people he'd been forced to apologize to on his godfather's behalf, Remus taking on the more angered members of the victims.

The result was that when they got back to the castle, everyone was exhausted and immediately headed straight for bed. Well, almost everyone.

"So what does it really do?" Harry asked after he was sure that they were alone.

"Emergency beacon," Sirius told him. "It alerts both Remus and I if you get hurt and it'll alert you if we get hurt. Green is Remus, Blue is me. One flash is minor, three flashes is mortal danger."

Harry blinked down as the amulet, studying it. 'That's actually really handy.'

It really was. Harry couldn't count the amount of times he worried about other people getting hurt when he wasn't around, not after the petrification of Hermione and Percy. Having a way to keep track of his godfather and Remus was a relief. 'I wonder if we can stick a few of these on the Weasley's once everyone knows what we are?'

_'I'm pretty sure they'd think that was overkill.'_ Gabriel mused, though Harry knew that he was also thinking the idea over.

'We could try the puppy-dog eyes.' Sirius had told him that they were 'really too good at those damn eyes'.

_'It's a thought.'_ Harry nodded as he continued a small conversation with Sirius. His godfather was going over all the things that the new elves had been doing that he deemed hilarious. Even Kreacher seemed to have lightened up with the new arrivals, though any mention of the elf had Sirius scowling.

Eventually, their conversation trailed off and they both called it a night.

Ron was already asleep when he entered the dorm room and Harry didn't take long to climb in bed.

He barely had time to blink before he drifted off, a smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, look! I'm not dead! It's a miracle!
> 
> Sorry that it's been so long since the last chapter. I think it's been four months? I really didn't mean for it to take this long but wow, I have been almost smothered by homework in the last few months. Most of it being math homework that only ever seems to increase in length with every class. And I have class twice a week. Seriously, I'm starting to wonder if our algebra professor thinks we're robots that don't need sleep, food, or time for other class homework. Not only is there online homework to do, there's also packets that we get at the end of every class. Just, why?
> 
> Add to that, I'm also working part time and I'm lucky that I manage to hit the cafeteria to eat every day. I knew I would be busy when college started up but this is pushing it. The only upside is that I got a 4.0 in four out of five classes last semester.
> 
> I'm hoping to get a lot more time to write in this semester. However I won't know if I'll be able to until my English class starts on the 6th. So don't be surprised if I disappear off the face of the earth again.
> 
> As always, feel free to ask any and all questions and I'll do my best to answer. Even if algebra is trying to kill me with HW.
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	48. Chapter 48

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Thundramon for proof-reading!

Kreacher was going to do it. He'd gone over it in his head, again and again, and again. Master Regulus had ordered the locket destroyed and Kreacher now knew how to do so. He could not fail his Master and though he might punish himself later, the trinket needed to be destroyed. Kreacher was certain of this.

Now was the perfect time to approach the Master Celestial. He would not be upsetting any school work and the Filthy Lord was keeping the half-breed company tonight. Now as the ideal time to bring the locket to the Master Celestial.

Grabbing the golden trinket, tainted by the foul magic used on it, Kreacher nodded determinedly to himself and vanished with a pop.

* * *

Harry was enjoying a day of silence, the first in the entire semester. Everyone was outside, enjoying the snow, Sirius was out with Remus preparing for the Full Moon tonight and the professors were preparing for the end of break. That left Harry with the entire dorm and common room to himself and no one to pester him into doing anything. No need to work on the next task, no reason to run around the school, and no plot to foil since the Fake Moody had been caught.

_'I can't remember the last time that we just took a break and relaxed.'_ Gabriel sighed contentedly in their mind. Even during the summer holidays, they were always busy with training with their sword and building up muscle memory. Thinking about it, they always seemed to be doing something that required work. The side project of cleaning up the Chamber with Luna was the closest to a break they'd had in a very long time.

'I can't either,' Harry agreed, sprawled across the couch in the common room without care. It seemed like some new, life-threatening, problem appeared every time they had a chance to relax.

The distinct popping sound of a house-elf had them both groaning, internally and externally. _'You jinxed it,'_ Gabriel whined. Harry ignored the Archangel and reluctantly sat up. His eyebrows raised when he realized that the elf before was Kreacher.

"Kreacher?" He blinked stupidly at the old elf. Kreacher wrung his hands nervously, glancing around hesitantly. Harry had never seen the elf so nerve-wracked before.

"Master Celestial sir," Kreacher greeted after assuring himself that there was no one else around. The common room was just as deserted as it had been before the house-elf had made his appearance. Despite this, Kreacher seemed to still be hesitant to discuss whatever it was that he wanted to discuss here.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Harry made sure to keep his voice level and even. Kreacher was already hard enough to deal with without Harry accidently inciting, what he like to call a 'Dobby Moment'. He'd only every incited one out of Kreacher once but he'd vowed never to do it again. Dobby did it enough for everyone house-elf he knew.

Kreacher was still hesitating, looking both certain and conflicted in a way that was actually rather confusing to the black haired teen. The house elf had always been certain before except for their discussion when Kreacher had first learned what Harry was. "Does this have anything to do with those items I asked you about?"

_'Huh,'_ Gabriel mused. _'I forgot about that.'_

Harry didn't really blame him. Harry had forgotten about the encounter as well and it had been months since then. However, it was the only time Kreacher had acted this way before.

"Yes, Master Celestial sir!" Kreacher looked more than relieved at not having to come out and say it himself. Immediately, the house-elf produced one of the bulkiest and rather ugly lockets that Harry had ever seen. That wasn't what really caught his attention.

Gabriel snarled and Harry felt his wings arch in threat. Kreacher flinched, eyes wide at his display bringing his attention away from the locket. "Drop the locket and get as far away from it as you can." Harry could see the magic leeching from Kreacher and into the locket. It was a miracle that the house-elf wasn't collapsed on the floor seizing.

The house-elf immediately obeyed, dropping the locket and popping behind Harry. Harry extended his wings, blocking the leeching magic from leaving the house-elf. The horcrux had evidently imprinted enough on the house-elf's magic that it no longer needed direct contact to leech from him. Not even Ginny had been that far along in the process when she'd had the diary. Riddle had still needed direct contact with her for any sort of magic, which was why the attacks had stopped when she had lost the diary.

Kreacher had been in contact with this horcrux for years. Maybe even almost two decades if Harry's fledgling theory was right. If Regulus had been given the horcrux, Kreacher had possibly had it since the first war, maybe a few years before Harry had been born and Voldemort had been stopped. That was more than enough time to form a strong link with the elf. _'I have a bad feeling that I know what happened to the other house-elves now,'_ Gabriel snarled darkly.

Harry had the same bad feeling. 'Guess we're going to see if our sword works on a horcrux sooner rather than later,' he replied angrily. There was no way that Harry was going to let the black monstrosity keep leeching off the house-elf any longer than he had to. It was a miracle that Kreacher was as sane as he was if this is what he'd been living with alone for so long.

The sword immediately appeared in his hand the moment he thought of it. Harry wasted no time in walking towards the horcrux with the blade ready to strike.

The locket wasn't about to sit there and wait to be destroyed, however. As soon as Harry made his way towards the twisted soul container, black magic lashed out. The fire in the fireplace blacked and flared as magic ripped up the floor and sent chunks of magic flying at the surprised teen. Cursing, Harry threw his wings open and materialized them blocking the worst of it from hitting the surprised elf behind him. He winced as the chunks of carpet hit his wings. The impact hurt more than he thought it would though he really shouldn't have been surprised.

A surprised shriek came from the portrait. Harry resisted the urge to look and see who it was. Taking his attention off a pissed horcrux attempting to kill him would likely end badly. _'At least there is no Basilisk.'_

Well, there was that going for them. However, he wasn't going to get anywhere just standing there. The black magic was thick in the room, so much so that Harry wouldn't be surprised if even the least magic sensitive _muggle_ could see it. Walking towards the thing was not going to be a possibility like this and they _needed_ to kill the damn thing before anyone else walked into this. It was already going to be trying enough explaining why he'd suddenly grown wings to whoever it was that had already entered.

They didn't have enough access to Grace to use that as a defense ye,t however, there was a spell that Harry could try. In all his memories of living on this particular Earth, he'd only ever been able to use this spell as a matured adult with a fully grown magical core. At the same time, he'd also found himself a lot more powerful than an average fourth year in this life, probably because he'd found his tree at a young age. Or maybe he would have been just as powerful in this life without having found his tree, though Harry doubted he'd ever really know.

The difficulty of this spell is that it had no incantation nor could it be performed with a wand. Like the animagus transformation, the spell required wandless manipulation of magic, though instead of turning into an animal, you were forming a shield of magic around yourself. It was a much more powerful version of the standard Protego spell with a lot more difficulty added to it. Wandless magic was always harder to do and wordless as well pushed it far into advanced light magic. Harry had never encountered it the Hogwarts library as it was far too advanced to keep even in the restricted section.

The teen grit his teeth and pulled on his magic. This was harder to do than it should have been, most likely because of the carpet still pelting him, the ache in his wings, and the shaken presence of Kreacher behind him. _'We can do this,'_ Gabriel whispered in the back of his mind, the voice of his other self quieter than he'd ever heard him. _Focus on the magic, let me do the rest._

For a moment, the line between them was gone. Their wings extended, a protective barrier made of Grace shielding everything behind them from destruction. Their magic rolled off their skin and circled in front of them forming a familiar shield of gleaming white mixed with shades of green that gave it a marbling affect they could not recall having been there in their memories. They walked forward, no long feeling the slap of black magic against their senses or feeling pain as carpet debris flew towards them. They especially didn't notice the rising smoke from the out of control fire in the fireplace.

Reaching the locket, they lifted their sword and brought it down, piercing through the layers of magic and metal hiding the twisted soul inside of it. The soul withered and screeched in pain, filling the room with the sounds of death as it slowly fizzled away into nothing. The black magic filling the room shattered, the whirlwind of carpet suddenly stopping altogether. They smiled.

"Harry!"

Just like that they snapped apart and Harry whirled around to see none other than Hermione hiding behind the couch of the common room.

"Hermione?" Harry asked as he focused on the room. "What are you doing here?"

_'I don't think that's what we should be worried about,'_ Gabriel informed him. _'We also should probably put the wings away.'_

Harry jerked and swung his head to see two perfectly visible wings, a slight shimmer giving away that they were visible to everyone who cared to see. Turning to where his friend was standing, he saw that she was giving them a wide eyed look of wonder. 'Shit.'

_'I guess we're going to have to hope that her occlumency is up to par sooner rather than later,'_ Gabriel mused. He didn't sound nearly as panicked about this whole thing as Harry felt, though that could just be because he was better at hiding his feelings than Harry was. Probably because he was only memories given sentience, now that Harry really considered it.

"What happened in here?!" Sirius' voice came from the portrait. Harry winced at his godfather's tone and took a moment to look around the room.

The Gryffindor common room had never really been all that tidy, to begin with but now it was absolutely wrecked. The carpet was shredded and pieces of it were everywhere, even impaling a few of the walls with the force that they had been shot. The fire had spread from the fireplace and half of the wall was currently engulfed in flames as well as a good portion of the floor. It was also quickly spreading to other parts of the common room. "Aguamenti!"

The fire sputtered under the flow of water, dowsing it completely everywhere the stream touched. Sirius soon added his own spell into the mix. They continued until the fire was out and the areas where it had burned were soaked as well as charred. The room was silent as they all turned to look at each other again. Hermione was still stunned, her eyes still glued to Harry's visible wings while Sirius was looking around the room trying to figure out what had happened. Harry wondered why his godfather was even here considering he was supposed to be with Remus.

Kreacher kept silent, no doubt stunned at how fast everything had escalated. Harry almost felt bad for the poor elf and was just glad that Sirius had yet to notice Kreacher's presence and, for once, rightly assume the elf was responsible. _'Not that he was really intending any of this to happen,'_ Gabriel interceded.

'Yeah, but try explaining that to Sirius. He'll be pissed just because Kreacher kept the locket hidden for so long.' Not that Harry thought the house-elf had much of a choice. He was surprised that Kreacher had even been able to bring the locket to him at all. Considering the amount of charms on the diary to prevent such a thing from occurring, Harry was a bit alarmed about the lack of charm on the locket. Voldemort didn't seem like someone to get less paranoid, after all.

_'Probably more to this story than we know,'_ Gabriel grumbled.

Voice jerked everyone out of their stupor. They were rather urgent and some even sounded panicked. "Harry, wings and sword!" Sirius snapped. Harry immediately stashed his sword away and allowed his wings to fade from sight. He'd forgotten that they were still visible, to be honest. That made twice in a row that he'd been able to keep them out without having to at least partially concentrate on them.

"Oh my word!" The voice of Professor McGonagall cut through the room as the portrait was thrown up to reveal herself and the entirety of the staff. Even Filch and Trelawney were both among the group. "What in Merlin's name!"

She didn't finish the sentence, cutting herself off as she studied the chaos. Her eyes finally focused on Harry. Horror flashed across her face. "Mr. Potter are you alright? Poppy!"

Confused, Harry looked down at himself to see that the carpet had been doing more damage to him than he'd thought. He was covered in cuts that had stained his rather casual attire with blood. He probably was going to have to get rid of these, then. _'We lose more clothing to battle with dark magic than we probably should.'_

Harry wondered if that said anything about their lives. He didn't think it was a good thing.

* * *

Explaining what had happened was a lot harder than Harry had predicted to be and he hadn't exactly expected it to be easy. Thankfully, Kreacher had managed to escape before anyone had noticed him though Harry made a note to talk to Sirius about the house-elf later. There were bound to be side effects after being around a horcrux for that long and they really should get the poor thing checked out.

The locket, thankfully, was destroyed beyond recognition. There was nothing left of the thing to identify what it was so Harry had a bit of room to improvise without having to answer the question of where he had found a priceless relic. Honestly, he couldn't believe that Voldemort had made Slytherin's Locket, of all things, into a _horcrux._ Wasn't that a kick in the teeth to your ancestor? Harry was really glad that Riddle had never bothered to explore and clean the Chamber like he and Luna had. Who knows what the bastard would have done to those artifacts?

Either way, he managed to spin it to look like an owl had delivered him the locket (which made more sense than a house-elf if you weren't in the know like Sirius was) and that upon touching it the thing went crazy. He'd used a Protego Maxima to keep most of the dangerous elements from reaching him. Or at least, that was the story that he was sticking with. Somehow, Harry doubted that they would believe he'd managed to use a spell that most adults would have trouble with.

As to what actually destroyed the 'cursed' necklace, Harry was feigning ignorance. There was no way to explain how he'd managed to stab it or even what he'd managed to stab it with. At least, not in a way that didn't involve admitting he could materialize a sword out of nowhere.

Thankfully, the conversation soon moved over to Sirius and his sudden appearance. The dog animagus didn't even bother lying, admitting that one of the functions of Harry's Christmas present was to alert Sirius and Remus if he had ever got hurt. As soon as the first of the carpet pieces had hit him, Sirius had been alerted and had booked it over to the Gryffindor common room as fast as he possibly could.

The best part was that he didn't even have to explain why he'd given Harry a protection charm with that function. Fake Moody was still fresh in everyone's minds, after all. Which left them with only Hermione left to question.

The bushy haired girl surprised Harry and even Sirius by telling them that she'd taken cover as soon as she'd completely entered the common room and had not seen anything else until the necklace had been mysteriously destroyed. Her face was devoid of any deviousness, not a single indication that she was lying through her teeth. Harry knew that Occlumency gave the practitioner more control over their emotions as well as their body language however he hadn't really considered what that would mean for his friends.

After a couple more questions (or interrogations techniques when it came to Snape) they were all released to wander around the castle until the house-elves finished fixing the common room.

Sirius sighed in relief once they were far enough away from the Headmaster's office. Then he glanced between Harry and Hermione. "Are you two going to be alright?"

There was absolutely nothing in his expression to giveaway anything other than concern. Harry knew what he was really asking, however.

"Yeah, Hermione and I are going to be good." He was going to have a lot to explain since she'd seen his wings but somehow, he got the feeling that this was probably going to be one of the easier conversation when I came to explaining what he was.

"You two stay out of trouble. I need to go check on Remus and fill him in. If anything else happens, I'll be here within minutes." Sirius glanced at them both, pausing to look at Harry. The black haired teen nodded in understanding, giving the man a slight smile. If he needed help explaining everything to Hermione, Sirius was willing to floo over and lend him some backup.

_'Nice thought but out of everyone we've told, Sirius was the one who originally had the hardest time grasping it.'_

This was very true though Harry kept that thought to himself. Now wasn't the time to tease his godfather. There would be plenty of time for that after he brought Hermione into the loop.

_'We're probably going to have to bring in Ron a lot earlier than we thought as well.'_ Gabriel sighed. _'We should probably wait until over the summer holidays so that Sirius can test his barriers for us but Hermione isn't going to want to wait much longer that to include him.'_

Knowing his friend like he did? Harry could only agree. Speaking of Hermione... "There's an empty classroom not far from here. We can talk there."

Hermione looked at him, brown eyes considering, before she nodded.

* * *

Today was turning out to be the weirdest day of her life. Which was really saying something considering she was a witch attending a magical school and had once been petrified by a Basilisk controlled by a memory of the darkest wizard in centuries from when he was a teenager. And her parent's wondered what she meant when she said that the wizarding world had skewed views of what was 'normal'.

Although she somehow didn't think that her best friend growing slightly transparent wings was on the list of 'normal' occurrences. The only thing that had her holding her tongue when the professors were questioning them was the fact that Sirius had obviously known about the wings. Hermione and even Ron had been aware that Harry had been hiding something for years now. She even knew that Remus and Sirius were aware of what he was hiding. The fourteen year old teenager strongly suspected that the wings were only one part of the secret.

She also knew that she was about to learn just what Harry had been hiding from them. So she sat patiently in the abandoned classroom has Harry put up privacy ward after privacy ward. She hadn't even known that you could put up more than one of those in the way he was. She also hadn't even known that he _knew_ any privacy wards in the first place!

Finally, Harry seemed content with his rather paranoid application of the wards. He also started to look rather nervous when he seemed to remember what they had come in here to do. "So, you're probably wondering what exactly happened today."

Hermione couldn't help it anymore. She snorted. Harry gave her his most wounded face. "You don't have to 'gently ease' me into whatever explanation you have for what happened. I've been perfectly aware that you've been hiding something for years now, Harry."

The nervous look disappeared slight, replaced by a more comfortable smile. Hermione returned it. "You can just come out and tell me. After today, I don't think there's anything that you can do to scare me away."

And that was really the root of the problem. Her mind was protected now that she knew Occlumency, she was no longer a liability like they'd been when they first confronted him. Yet he was still hesitating to tell her. Sirius and Remus knew and had obviously taken it well. She even suspected that Luna Lovegood was even in on it (though whether or not Harry had told her or she had discovered on her own, Hermione still wasn't all that sure about). The fact that Harry was still nervous about telling her, when considering those facts, wasn't because he thought that they were a liability. Not anymore at least. He was probably worried about their reactions.

She knew that Harry had been abused when he was growing up. That was obvious to anyone that even stopped to look. His muggle relatives were horrid people and if she ever managed to come face to face with them, she would probably be given a one-way ticket to Azkaban. She had no doubt that Harry's hesitance was born out of his treatment from his relative combining with the delicate nature his secret likely held.

"It started in first year, during one of my trips in the forest with Hope," Harry began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there you have it. The newest chapter!
> 
> This chapter took me a very long time, as I had a hard time deciding what to do with Kreacher and the Locket Horcrux. When I started writing this over two years ago, my plan was going to be to have Ron and Hermione find out at the same time near the middle of their fifth year.
> 
> As I started getting closer to fourth year, I changed my plans a bit. I always intended to have Hermione progress in Occlumency faster than Ron and thinking about it, I couldn't really justify having her wait. At the same time, I also didn't have all that many plans for when Kreacher handed over the locket. So I edited my plans a little. I have to say that I'm really glad I did. This was so much better than what I originally had planned. Especially when I decided to add in the scene with Harry and Gabriel now instead of working it into one of the tasks, like I originally intended.
> 
> Because of the changes I made in my plans, this chapter took a lot longer to finish than I had anticipated. I rewrote this so many times it's not even funny. I'm really happy with the final product though, so it was worth the time taken away from my English essays.
> 
> Speaking of those, I have one due soon that I need to go write.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! As always, if you have any questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to give spoiler free answers!
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	49. Chapter 49

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Thundramon for proof-reading!

Hermione was silent as he explained the best way that he knew how – from the beginning.

Really, was there a good way to tell someone something like this? If there was, Harry hoped that he would find it soon.

Gabriel remained just as silent as Hermione was inside of their head.

"I didn't think anything of it until I went to Gringotts with the Weasley's. The goblins knew something was different about me the moment they saw me." It was odd, to think of how little he had known back then. So much had happened in the last three years... "They wanted to make sure that I wasn't possessed by an evil spirit." Which was fair, now that he thought about it. Quirrell was a great example about why that would be necessary. "That was when I met myself."

_'Which was a really irritating conversation,'_ Gabriel grumbled.

'Only because you were being really cryptic.'

_'I only had one setting at that point. Get over it.'_

"What do you mean, 'met myself'?!" Hermione broke her silence, eyes wide and pensive.

Harry blinked before shrugging. "I guess it would be more accurate to say I met the first version of myself? Well, sort of. There really wasn't anyone there to see since we were in my head."

The bushy haired girl didn't seem to find that reassuring. Harry pressed on anyways. They weren't ever going to get passed this if he had to keep figuring out new ways to describe the ritual. "We talked. According to him, we'd been reincarnated many times and this was our newest life. Other than that, the only thing I'd managed to get from him was our original name."

Harry's eyes met Hermione's. "In that first life, our name was Gabriel."

Angel were, perhaps, one of the most well-known symbols of religion out there. While they were mostly viewed as harp playing, white-robed winged beings, which definitely wasn't true, they were still well known in the common muggle population. Harry was willing to bet that even a few purebloods had heard of them before, though he got the impression that they were mostly dismissed as being only a myth created by muggles. At least, that was the impression that he'd gotten when he'd discussed the matter with Sirius.

The angel Gabriel, while not as commonly known as Michael, was still rather famous. At least famous enough that Harry had mentally berated himself more than once for not putting the pieces together when he'd first learned his counterpart's name. Seriously, just how many magical beings named Gabriel had he thought there were?

_'Eh, you were twelve and raised to a family of religious assholes,'_ Gabriel cut in. _'Give yourself a break. I would have been shocked if you had immediately come to the conclusion that you were an angel. Especially an Archangel.'_

'True,' Harry conceded before turning his attention back to Hermione. Harry had been expecting a variety of reaction from the brunet, most of them revolving around shock and surprise. From his experience with Remus, Sirius, and Luna, it was a good bet to go with something in that range.

He really should have known better. This was the same girl that had equated expulsion as a fate worse than death.

Instead of the expected reactions, Hermione looked more thoughtful than anything else. Her eyes were intent and focused, though Harry could already tell that she wasn't looking at him. Not really. Judging from her expression, Harry could guess that she was going through all of the oddities that he had been displaying since their first year and adding this new information into the mix.

_'This is going to take a while, isn't it?'_

Harry didn't bother responding and just sat down, patiently waiting for her to finish her thoughts.

* * *

Hermione wasn't stupid. Her parents, while not religious themselves, came from two religious families. Frankly, it was a miracle that any of her relatives had been willing to overlook the occasional odd happenstance that only seemed to occur whenever she was in the general vicinity. Her parents had even written off quite a few damning incidents where it was almost impossible not to connect the dots to her, though they had happened in such an outrageous way that it would be impossible for a little girl to do.

A normal little girl, at least.

Learning about the Wizarding World and her powers hadn't really affected her outlook on religion in general. She supposed that she just hadn't given it any thought, considering how hectic each of their school years were.

She'd probably have ignored it all completely if not for the beautiful wings that seemed to have appeared on her best friend's back. While the wings themselves were a mixture of green and gold feathers, not to mention they were mostly transparent, Hermione's thoughts had immediately jumped back to her grandmother as she described the winged creatures that protected humanity.

While 'angel' was certainly part of the right conclusion, she had been wrong about the kind. St. Gabriel the Archangel certainly wasn't someone that she connected to Harry of all people. Especially as Gabriel was supposed to be the patron saint of messengers. Though, considering it, wouldn't reporters be considered messengers? That could explain the easy way that he had manipulated Rita Skeeter into telling the story that he wanted her to. If she hadn't heard it from Cedric and Harry himself, she probably wouldn't have believed it possible.

Actually, a lot of things made sense to her now. Starting in their second year, Harry had started spacing out and would seem to be engaging in a conversation only he could hear. Considering he had just described meeting himself, Hermione could easily conclude that Harry was still in communication with that portion of his personality. Which gave her a headache to think about, honestly. Her best friend was likely a therapist's nightmare. Or dream come true, depending on the point of view.

Wait, did that mean that Harry's father was God?!

"Merlin," she whispered, her eyes widening. Her best friend was literally the child of God.

Somehow, she couldn't wrap her head around that.

"Are you alright?" Her eyes snapped to focus on her best friend, the archangel of the lord. Wow, that was going to take a long time to reconcile in her head.

Was she alright? Her best friend had basically just admitted to being a reincarnated Archangel. She frowned and looked at him. "Angels are reincarnated?" Angels can die?

"Apparently?" Harry shrugged when she narrowed her eyes at him. "From what I can tell, there really isn't a precedence here. It could be the Archangel thing or it could be that this is what happens to every angel when they die. Neither of us really know."

Was it normal to refer to yourself as two people? Hermione felt the urge to facepalm. She was clearly spending too much time among wizards if she actually had to ask herself that question at all.

She froze, something dawning on her. He'd said they'd been reincarnated 'many times' and that Gabriel was only their first life. "Just how many times have you been reincarnated?" She breathed.

Harry shrugged. "I didn't really keep count. I can say that it was probably a lot more than I thought it would be in the first place. Maybe over 70? No more than at least a 100. Probably."

Hermione felt her mouth open a bit in surprise as the number seemed to jump around in her head. Dear Merlin, even without the 'Archangel' part, Harry would be thousands of years old just from the reincarnations. No wonder he his personality had been fluctuating if he'd been regaining memories of all those lives.

Her eyes narrowed again, enough that she was almost squinting. "Just how many of those lives were you a wizard?"

"Maybe 6? At least, on this Earth. I couldn't begin to tell you how many times I've ended up as something with magical abilities on other Earth's..." Harry paused in his sentence, seeming to realize what he had just said.

Hermione stared for a moment. "Did you just say 'Earth's' as in plural?!"

Her best friend let out a despondent moan.

* * *

_'Well, it could have been worse.'_

Harry didn't want to know what 'worse' looked like. Explaining the multiple Earth's to Hermione was not nearly as easy as it had been in the past. Remus hadn't pushed much beyond the basics and neither had Luna. She had mostly been interested in how the different Earth's had played into his experiences. Hermione, however, was fascinated with the concept of there being multiple Earth's, and therefore, multiple alternate dimensions. Though dimensions wasn't the right word for it.

The easiest way to explain it was similar to how Harry had first explained it to Sirius. There were thousands, maybe millions, of different universes with their own Earth. Each of those was connected to each other by Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.

While that was the truth, it was over simplified that the real explanation. Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and Earth made up four planes of existence. The planes were connected by a blanks space that most referred to as the 'Void'. Reapers carried the souls of those that had died across the Void in order to insure that they had found their way to their destination after death. Without a Reaper, those that were forced to make the journey after their tether to the Earth was cut, risked getting lost.

There were places, however, where the Void was almost absence, so thin that it went unnoticed by spirits. Those were the places where the four planes touched each other and a Reaper was no longer need to guide residents of the other planes into each other.

However, there wasn't only one Earth. That was where things got really complicated. Each Earth and the universes around it were different dimensions and each dimensions was connected to each plane of existence, however the dimensions didn't have the Void in-between them. Instead, they overlapped each other. Sometimes, those really unlucky found breaches in the dimensions and walked from one into the other without even trying.

There were also rituals that could be used to break into another dimension, though from what Gabriel had told him, they were dangerous and, depending on the dimension, could strip even a Seraph of their abilities. Worse, the ritual had to be performed a second time to get back, as it was nearly impossible to predict which dimension you had ended up. Meaning that only an archangel could track you done to bring you back to the right Earth if necessary. And even then, it was challenging to find the right version of the person you were tracking. Or at least, that was what Gabriel had said.

It was all overly complicated and hurt even Harry's head to think about, but Hermione looked more and more enthusiastic the more he explained. Harry preferred the explanation he'd given to Sirius, if he was being honest.

Thankfully, Hermione allowed him to change the subject and they moved on to easier things to talk about. Mostly about Harry's wings. He spent a good few hours answering her questions about his new appendages. She was very amused when he described how long it took him to learn basic flight and the various mishaps that he'd had while learning.

It was nice, talking to her about these things in casual conversation. Sure, he'd been able to talk with Sirius and Remus about them however it wasn't the same as talking to one of his best friends.

"It makes sense now," she muttered, breaking him out of his musings. Harry blinked at her, confused as to what she meant. Hermione blushed, probably not having intended to say that out loud.

"Why you didn't tell us when we first asked," she explained. "I always wondered what would be so big that we needed to protect our minds from intruders. I knew that your secret had to be big but I never thought it would be on this level."

Harry smiled at her. "To be honest, I don't blame you. It is a bit bizarre, isn't it?"

Hermione grinned and nodded. "It does make Sirius calling you 'angelic' a lot more amusing than Ron and I thought it was."

Harry snorted, rolling his eyes. That sounded just like Sirius. Everyone would just assume that the joke was Harry being anything but 'angelic' when in reality, it was a literal description. "I'm just waiting for him to realize that I'm technically a saint."

Hermione paused, seemingly realizing that herself, before snorting. "I almost forgot about that. Does that have anything to do with why Rita was so charmed with you?"

Harry blinked, his eyebrows raising. "Why would it?"

"Well, St. Gabriel is the patron saint of Messengers," Hermione smiled. "Doesn't a reporter counts as a messenger?"

_'Huh. I never really thought about that.'_

Harry was just as surprised. "You know, that actually could be a part of it. I mean, I know that I laid it on a little thick but I suppose that being the Messenger might certainly have helped."

It was definitely something to think about. Frowning, Harry tried to recall the last time that he'd had trouble getting in touch with anyone using a form of communication. The only thing that came to mind was when Dobby was stealing his mail, long before he and Gabriel had first come into close contact with each other. Even then, nothing had been damaged and he'd still gotten all of his mail. Ron and the twins had even figured out that something was wrong when he hadn't responded to their letters.

"I never even noticed," Harry mused aloud.

It also explained the urge he'd had to return to the Chamber. He'd known after only a few visits that he wasn't going to find another Horcrux down there, yet he'd still felt the urge to keep going, slowly uncovering more and more hidden gems as he and Luna had progressed. In fact, the urge to find every secret concealed in the Chamber had only vanished after he'd found the book that had been left for him. A message.

Frowning, he cast his thoughts back even further. When Dobby had first come to him, he'd immediately trust that the elf was telling him the truth. Every time the house-elf had appeared, Harry hadn't really questioned his honesty. Yet the first time that Dobby had appeared, he had believed him. He hadn't even managed to convince himself that the house-elf was lying.

And when he'd first heard the story behind the betrayal of his parents, Harry and Gabriel had immediately known that something was off. It was why they'd been so willing to listen to the man when they first encountered him in the Shrieking Shack.

Harry was willing to be that there were other incidences that hadn't really caught his attention enough for him to remember them, things that he'd probably just written off as being coincidence. 'I'm not imagining this, am I? Is this something that was going on and we just didn't notice?'

_'Well, you didn't notice.'_ Gabriel sounded more sheepish than anything else. _'I was aware of it, for the most part. Except the Chamber thing, that one got past me I'll admit.'_

'Wait, you knew about this?!' The 'and you didn't tell me' was left unsaid, though Harry had no doubt that his counterpart heard it loud and clear.

_'It's a normal part of being us. We're the Archangel of Messages. Any form of communication is sort of our specialty. Didn't you wonder why the rumors about us seemed a lot tamer than they did first year? Or that the negative rumors seem to die down quicker? Everyone's forgotten the fact that we were accused of entering our name into the Cup, especially after the Moody disappearance.'_

Come to think of it, there _had_ been a lack of accusatory glares from the general populous of the school, starting with the end of the first task and disappearing altogether with Moody's absence and the mystery it provided. That didn't explain how this was happening, however.

_'Natural proximity,'_ Gabriel answered easily. _'Archangel's are a bit different than regular seraphs. We're primordial beings so we tend to naturally affect the areas around us. Michael makes things hotter and can easily burn enemies to death without touching them. Raphael does this weird thing where those around him tend to obtain less injuries. We tend to influence the way that things around us are perceived.'_

That made sense, actually. Harry was about to ask more when Hermione seemed to decide to remind them of her presence in the room.

"While I'm sure that you just had an interesting discussion with yourself," the bushy haired girl's voice caught his attention. "If we don't move now we're going to break curfew. The others are going to want an explanation as to what happened to the common room as well."

There was a slightly questioning tilt to the end of her sentence. Harry shook his head. "Ron isn't proficient enough in the new form of Occlumency that Sirius has him learning and the others don't know any Occlumency at all."

Hermione frowned at him, obviously displeased with the answer.

Harry frowned back. "Ron should have a solid enough foundation at some point during the summer. I'll tell him then. He'll have a better idea of how to start introducing this to everyone else."

Hermione nodded, still not pleased but accepting the logic behind his decision. "Is there anyone else that know? Besides Remus and Sirius?"

"Luna," Harry informed her. Seeing the look on her face, he expanded his answer. "She's unique in that she's known a lot of it since I first met her."

"Really?"

Harry grinned. "She can see my wings," he told her. "Even when I'm not manifesting them like in the common room. I gave her an amulet in order to protect her mind but she's known I wasn't fully human even before Sirius and Remus."

He carefully left out the fact that the amulet was her Christmas gift this year and that she could actually touch his wings. Her gift was a lot stronger than the six sense that Sirius had. He also didn't tell her that she'd only really discovered what he was this year as well. That didn't really matter and the relief on his friend's face only cemented his decision. Hermione had always made it clear that she just wanted him to have someone that he could talk to. And while Luna hadn't know the specifics, he'd definitely been able to discuss his wings and such with her.

"We'd best get back to the common room," he sighed. "Knowing Ron, he's going to interrogate us all night about what happened."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, the newest chapter! And just in time for Exams to start! I literally just got done with my first final of the semester so there's a 90% possiblity that if you leave a comment or ask a question, I won't respond until at least Saturday. Maybe Friday if I'm lucky and dorm move out day goes well.
> 
> Since I know a lot of people were looking forward to Hermione's reaction, I'm going to reassure you that she will have a freak out. Right now, she's still processing everything that's happened and is still slightly in shock. So if she seems really calm and okay with this right now, that's why. Her real reaction will be much more interesting, I promise that.
> 
> So, other than that, I don't think that there's really much for me to clarify in this chapter. It might be a little bit before the next chapter comes out but since Finals are this week, it won't be nearly as long as it has been between this chapter and the last chapter. Maybe a few weeks at most.
> 
> I hope that you enjoyed the chapter and please feel free to ask any questions you have and I'll answer them the best that I can without spoilers. Just keep in mind that my answer won't be anytime before Friday.
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	50. Chapter 50

Ron did, in fact, interrogate them the minute he noticed them entering the common room. The room itself was still rather destroyed, though the carpeting had been cleaned up and removed from anything it had impaled during the locket's attack. Ron was sitting precariously on the torn sofa with the rest of the Weasley's and Sirius in various places around them.

Harry stuck to the story that they had told the professors, for the most part. He did share with them his 'suspicions' about the origin of the necklace and the way that the necklace arrived. Sirius, as Harry predicted, was not pleased by the real answer to that mystery.

"Kreacher brought that thing here?!" Sirius shouted. "What in Merlin's name was it even doing in my parent's house, of all places?!"

"If the locket's anything like the diary was, then your brother was probably told to hide it." Harry nodded towards the pale Ginny. "Ginny got the diary from Mr. Malfoy, who was probably got it from Voldemort to protect."

Sirius frowned, his face still rather uneasy about the whole thing, He didn't even bother to defend his younger brother, already aware that the younger man had been a Death Eater. The gathered Weasley's gave him sympathetic looks. "That still doesn't explain why he brought it here, of all places." The man grumbled.

Harry rolled his eyes. "He probably heard about the incident with the diary from Dobby and figured I'd be able to get rid of it." He gave Sirius a meaningful look. His godfather grimaced, seemingly understanding that there was more to the story than they could currently discuss. Hermione might know what he was now but he definitely did not want to tell her about Horcruxes.

He'd rather avoid shoving any other life-changing revelations on her for the time being. He had no doubt that once she was able to sleep on everything that she'd learned today, the poor girl would likely have a proper freakout. She was just taking everything far too well for that not to be the case, Occlumency or not.

"That's enough speculation for today," Remus interrupted, having remained quiet for the discussion so far. "It's getting late. No doubt Harry and Hermione are exhausted. Sirius and I will stay in Gryffindor tower for the night to make sure that nothing else happens. So off to bed."

There were some grumbles as those gathered began standing and making their way towards the dorm room. "Harry!" Sirius called as he started approaching the stairs. "Stay back a minute."

Ron shot Harry a questioning look but the raven-haired boy gave him an exasperated look, heavily implying that Sirius was being a worrywart. Ron's face morphed into amused understanding, having given Harry the same look whenever Molly had started fretting over her children for what appeared to be no reason. "See you in a bit, mate." The red-head disappeared up the stairs a moment later.

Harry waited a minute to make sure that they were really gone before turning back to Sirius and Remus. He flicked his wand and cast a privacy ward around them. After everything that happened over the course of the day, he didn't want to take any chances that anyone would overhear them. "What did you need?"

"How bad off are you really?" Sirius asked without hesitating. "That wasn't any form of Portego, pup. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that spell predated Portego by a very long time."

Harry nodded, not bothering to deny it. "Close enough. I wasn't sure I could pull it off as I was an adult in the life I learned it in. It's more effective then Portego but it can't be done with a wand, so it's been lost for a very long time."

Sirius winced. "Best not let that fact slip to the rest of the staff, pup. A lost spell like that can't be explained away," his godfather sighed. "I'm starting to really wonder about the safety of this castle. A Horcrux like that shouldn't have been able to make it past the wards, no matter who brought it in. If anything, the wards should have repelled both Kreacher and the locket as soon as they got within 100 feet of Hogsmeade, let alone the castle. Something fishy is going on here and I don't like it one bit."

"It doesn't seem all that out of place to me," Harry shrugged. "This isn't the first Horcrux to find itself within Hogwarts. Voldemort himself was able to spend a year possessing a professor and no one was the wiser."

Sirius grimaced and even Remus looked uncomfortable. "That's the thing, cub." Remus rubbed a hand across his face, seemingly aging a few years. "That shouldn't be possible. None of that. The wards that protect Hogsmeade and Hogwarts are supposed to be able to repel even Dementors, yet hundreds of them were able to attack a Quidditch game. Two horcrux were able to easily enter the castle. Something is weakening the wards and I would be that it's been going on for a very long time for things to get this bad."

_'When they put it like that, it does seem like something rotten is going on.'_ Gabriel added. _'I don't remember things like that happening in our past lives, not like it has been now. The forest has always been the exception to these rules yet they seem to be the only ones that haven't been put in danger. I would bet the only reason they've been safe is that no one sane goes in there without some sort of protection. Even Voldemort only stayed in there long enough to attack a single unicorn and he was easily run off by Firenze.'_

Harry frowned, not liking where this was going. 'Something's been sapping the power of the wards, feeding off the power and using it for something. It's been going on long enough that the deterioration of the wards has gone unnoticed. This has got to have been going on for at least a century and it's been sped up in the last few years.'

"Pup, I don't like the look on your face," Sirius interrupted. Harry startled and gave the man a small shake of his head. Whatever this was, he wasn't sure that it had anything to do with Voldemort. Fifty years wasn't long enough for the type of damage that was being dealt to the wards. Right now, Voldemort was the priority threat, he needed to be addressed before they started looking for other problems to solve. Especially problems that spanned for centuries instead of decades.

_'One thing about this Earth is that we're never going to be wanting for a problem to fix. Seriously, the longer we look around this world, the more things start going wrong. I'm starting to wonder if we're just a magnet for trouble at this point.'_ Gabriel added and Harry got the sense that there was something else, a much darker thought under the complaint that he wasn't used to hearing for his other self. Just as he noticed it, the feeling disappeared and Gabriel's normal buzz was the only thing that he could detect in his mind.

"Don't worry about it," Harry pushed everything else to the back of his mind, focusing on his godfather and Remus. "I don't think that this has anything to do with Voldemort."

Remus frowned, commenting before Sirius could though he could see that his godfather definitely wanted to. "Voldemort is the biggest threat and we do need to focus on finding and destroying his Horcruxes," there was clearly a 'but' coming, Harry could already spot it coming on. "At the same time, Harry, this isn't something that we can brush off. The wards being affected is making the entire school vulnerable to outside attack from anything. Who knows what could have been prevented if this wasn't going on."

"Why don't you and Sirius do a little digging and see if you can't find what's going on," Harry suggested after a moment. "I'll focus on the Horcruxes while you work on that." It was the best solution that they were going to find. He felt the telltale sign of a headache building up as he considered all the things that seemed to keep piling up. He really didn't want to consider what his life would have been like if he had been doing this all alone.

'We probably would have died during the Dementor fiasco.' Gabriel added in unhelpfully. Harry fought the urge to roll his eyes and instead waited for the two adults to think his suggestion over. Sirius looked like he was all for the plan while Remus still looked hesitant, likely not really comfortable leaving him alone to deal with the soul fragments that Voldemort seemed to have scattered everywhere.

'I don't think it's really everywhere, considering the amount of them we seemed to have encountered in this castle.' Harry paused, considering that for a moment. The locket and diary had both been brought into the castle by outside sources that seemed to have made their way hear some way or another.

_'What if there's been a Horcrux here all along,'_ Gabriel finished the thought for him.

There wasn't evidence to suggest this, and Harry wasn't sure how Voldemort would have gotten a Horcrux hear that wasn't the diary (the only one he had probably made in the castle if he considered the lack of deaths after Myrtle during Tom's time here) but Harry had a horrible feeling in his gut that he wasn't wrong. And if he was right, if there really was a Horcrux here, that would bring the insane Dark Lord's count up to four.

"Sirius, what's the next magical number after three?" Harry turned to his godfather, a sinking feeling stirring in his gut.

"Seven," Sirius answered easily, giving him a strange look. Harry grimaced, suddenly feeling very nauseous. "Pup?"

"Bellatrix has another Horcrux, like how Malfoy has the diary. I think there might be one hidden in the castle as well." Harry closed his eyes, trying to stamp down on the innate horror that was beginning to rise inside of him. Seven times. Seven times Voldemort had ripped apart his soul and stuck them in vessels that were never meant to handle such a powerful force. Souls were never supposed to be split, especially using such dark magic in order to do so.

_'Ironically, from everything that Remus gathered from those books, it was his own soul that was powering the force used to fracture it. The only power great enough to split a soul available to a human is the power of a soul. I don't think anyone ever considered that possibility.'_ Harry suspected that 'anyone' was referring to their siblings and not humans themselves. _'Sometimes, I think free will is made up of irony more than anything else.'_

"I think this is enough bad news for tonight," Remus interrupted before Sirius could regain the color in his face. "Harry's right, Voldemort is the priority. If he's made that many Horcruxes than I doubt that he's even semi-sane anymore and there's no telling what he's planning with this tournament."

Sirius nodded, seeming to pull himself together. They wrapped up the conversation as Harry stretched and prepared to head up to bed, the werewolf and his godfather heading off to their own bedrooms.

It wasn't until Harry was already in bed, attempting to sleep when what Remus said hit him. _'When did they confirm that Voldemort was behind this?'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter was really short. I was hoping to get it up a few weeks ago but life happened and then college happened, so it's both shorter and later than I wanted it to be. It is insane, how much homework that I have already. I knew I was going to be busy this year but I guess I wasn't prepared for just how badly. I already have two tests, two papers, and a quiz just for tomorrow that need to be done and that doesn't include textbook readings and weekly papers on the them for two different classes. Just...ugh. I only really have time to write during my work shift and that's when I'm not working on homework or doing my work duties. If I didn't have time management skills, I'd probably be screwed.
> 
> But no worries! I have a couple free weekends coming up so I should be able to get the next chapter down a lot sooner than this one was and it should definitely be longer than this. I could have worked on this one longer, I suppose, but I wanted to get the chapter out this week. I guess this is more of an interlude than anything else, if I'm being honest but it is better than nothing.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter and feel free to ask me any question you might have and I'll do my best to answer (barring spoilers).
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	51. Chapter 51

Albus Dumbledore had what was turning out to be quite the migraine. After the incident in Gryffindor tower, the rest of the holiday had been quiet, thank Merlin. However, that didn't mean that as the Headmaster, he was allowed to let the matter rest. Minerva had been persistent in her own investigation and neither of them had figured out how that necklace had gotten past the security of the wards.

Perhaps if this was the only incident, the elderly man could have let it pass. Mayhap if nothing else of this nature had occurred, it could be labeled an isolated incident. This was not the case, unfortunately, as over the last few decades there had been numerous incidents in which dangerous and life-threatening objects had been smuggled into the school and students had been injured because of it.

The most notable example being Aragog, the new 'pet' Hagrid had been expelled over. While not the monster of the Chamber, the aracomantula show has never been able to be brought into the school and yet Hagrid had managed to keep it hidden for months, ever since it hatched. And Merlin knew how long that egg had been in the half-giant's care. No, this problem was a long time in the making and Albus had no idea why it was happening. For once, he couldn't blame the now dark lord Voldemort, as no fifth year, no matter how advanced, could have possibly affected the ancient wards.

Mostly, Albus allowed a sigh to escape him, due to the fact that the ward stone's location had been lost for at least 4 or 5 centuries. Albus only knew that it existed because of the remains of a text that mentioned it. Tragically, the text had been mostly destroyed in a fire that had nearly taken the lives of half the school 600 years ago. From then on, the ward stone's location had been passed down by word of mouth from Headmaster to Headmaster in what Albus could only call the most idiotic plan ever conceived. It only took one Headmaster dying before they could pass on the location for the whole thing to fall apart. And it had fallen apart. The man had not even made a portrait for the new Headmaster to ask as his passing had been too sudden and too unexpected that he'd not had time to get one made. Albus sometimes cursed the fact that magical portraits had only been recently invented before the man had died. Things would have been infinitely easier to handle had his predecessor had their own portrait.

"Blast," Albus muttered aloud, his head throbbing as his migraine increased. There were so many things that he had to deal with, so many problems that needed his attention, that he bemoaned the fact that this was being added to the already large pile. It was a wonder Dippet had gotten anything done if this was the workload the man had to deal with him. Experiencing his own workload already made him much more understanding of how his old friend had managed to overlook the budding Dark Lord. Albus could only wonder if he himself wouldn't have overlooked the child under these circumstances.

"Cheer up, Albus," Dilys Derwent smiled happily at him. "We all knew that this day would happen. Better you realize the problem now that later, da?"

That was not, despite her intentions, very helpful, Albus noted dryly. "Indeed," he smiled gently. It would do no good to incite the wrath of a woman he would one day have to put up with for a very long time. Portraits were both wonderful and very irritating like that. He supposed he'd have to thank his more easy-going personality for the lack of trouble between himself and the Headmasters who had chosen to be immortalized in portrait form.

An owl swooping in through his open window cut off his thoughts. He sighed as he recognized the familiar animal and the seal on the envelope it dropped off onto his desk. "Give me a moment and I'll have my reply, Edwin."

He very much regretted the day that Cornelious Fudge latched onto him as a mentor. As if he didn't have enough of his own problems without having to take on those at the Ministry of Magic as well. There was a reason that he had never wanted to be Minister, despite how many had insisted that he'd be perfect for the role.

He flicked his wand, breaking the seal and allowing him to pull out the letter and begin to read. The portraits in the room watched as the man seemed to go from exhausted to grave in a matter of minutes.

"Oh dear," Albus Dumbledore breathed aloud.

* * *

Harry felt a headache coming on.

Break had ended rather quietly after everything that happened. Hermione seemed to still be processing everything that she had learned over the break and was doing her utmost to act as if nothing drastic had occurred at all.

That would have been a lot easier if the entire school hadn't somehow learned about what happened in the Gryffindor common room. Harry had lost count of the people who were whispering about him behind his back, talking about the incident. They'd always pretend to look away when he turned to gaze at them and would immediately continue their conversation the moment his back was turned. Honestly, it was like they thought he was deaf.

He didn't know how they had even managed to hear about what had happened. Hermione, Sirius, and Harry definitely hadn't told anyone and it couldn't have been Ron or the others. There were too many details circulating that Harry had conveniently left out of their explanation of what had happened. It was somewhat maddening, really.

"It's Hogwarts," Ron shrugged in explanation when Harry voiced his frustrations. "Pretty sure that there isn't any secret here that stays secret for more than a few days."

Hermione let out a snort, drawing the boys' attention to her. Harry almost snickered at her annoyed glance in his direction but managed to keep his face carefully curious. Her eye twitched and she huffed at them both before turning her attention back to her meal.

"What was that about?" Ron muttered to him. Harry shrugged and grinned internally.

_'Wonder how many other secrets people here don't notice,'_ Gabriel added in, the grin obvious in his voice. _'Hermione still seems to be taking this better than Sirius.'_

'I don't know,' Harry sighed. 'She doesn't seem to really be acknowledging it at all.'

_'Give it time. She's still probably trying to wrap her head around the fact that God is real.'_ Gabriel easily brushed the comment aside. _'I don't think Sirius has even managed to completely make that acknowledgment yet. I doubt he's even really sat down and thought about how our identity as an archangel means for the different religions out there.'_

'I'm pretty sure that Sirius already figured out God is real.' Harry responded dryly. 'We had a conversation about that and everything when he first found out.'

Gabriel huffed. _'Knowing it and realizing it are two different things. He knows that because we are an archangel, that means that God must also be real but that doesn't mean that he's really sat down and thought about the fact that our original parent is older than creation and is also the reason the world around us exists. Sirius is still trying to wrap his head around the fact that there's more than one Earth.'_

Harry couldn't really argue against that, actually. Hermione was reacting better than Sirius mostly because Sirius was still reacting to it. _'Remus still reacted the best,'_ Harry said after a moment of thought.

"Harry," Ron huffed from in front of him. Harry turned his attention back towards the redhead.

_'Yeah, he did.'_

* * *

Luna was already waiting for him at the Chamber's entrance, smiling serenely at him as he approached. Luna always seemed to know when he was about to visit the Chamber and usually was there waiting for him if they hadn't met up on the way there. It occurred to him to wonder how she always managed to do that but for the most part, he shrugged it off. Luna was just Luna and it was better to accept her odd behavior instead of question it.

_'It probably is just a side effect of having true Sight.'_ Gabriel added. _'It's becoming really obvious that she has more than just the ability to see our true form.'_

Like how she had known that Azrael's journal was important though he hadn't been able to read it. She'd been surprised when he'd been able to read the journal yet when she'd handed it to him, she'd called it an interesting read. He'd puzzled over the matter for a while after he was no longer occupied with the journal itself before they'd come up with the theory that there was more to Luna's sight than they'd thought.

"Hello Luna," Harry greeted her cheerfully.

"Hello," Luna's smile didn't change as she greeted him. "The nargles told me that today is going to be very important."

Harry blinked. _'I don't know if I like the sound of that,'_ Gabriel admitted to him. _'Last time something important happened, we found that book.'_

Azrael's book weighted heavily in his book-bag, where he'd kept it since the last message had appeared. Harry hadn't really felt comfortable leaving it out of his grasp for longer than a few moments and had figured that this was the best way around that in the long run. No one really questioned why he always had the book-bag with him, considering the fact that Nith and Scylla had a tendency to curl up in it when they weren't in his hair. Nevermind Tinker, Havoc, and Ruth. Really, the whole student population tended to turn a blind eye to the many different creatures that followed him around and just accepted it.

Harry didn't even feel bad about taking advantage of this fact, though he still got odd looks from the Durmstrong and Beauxbatons students every once in a while. Harry attributed that to a lack of exposure to him more than anything else. Not that he really blamed them for it.

"Best go down before someone asks what we're doing out here," Harry mused and led the way into the bathroom. A quick hiss had the Chamber entrance sliding open. Luna immediately jumped down, Harry following after making sure to close the entrance.

Immediately, he knew something was different about the Chamber. Though they had cleaned everything up and began restoring what they could, there had still been a lingering sense of age to everything. Now, however, the whole Chamber was practically glowing in a way that made it look as if it had just been enchanted.

"What happened here?" Harry wondered, blinking at the newly vibrant colors coating the walls. Not even the castle itself was this vibrant to look at.

Luna shrugged, looking around in wide-eyed wonder. Harry couldn't even really blame her, he wasn't acting any better.

_'Chamber of Secrets,'_ Gabriel mused. _'I guess they really did mean that name literally. This place is crawling with secrets.'_

Harry was about to reply before a familiar heat began emitting from his bookbag. Surprised, he quickly pulled out the journal and flipped it open, watching the remaining writing on the page he'd left off on suddenly become legible.

**_Brother,_ **

**_I know not when this will reach you when Father will deem you ready to read this message as you begin your journey, yet I know that it will be at a time when the world around you begins to shake with the forces of Change. Change brought upon the world by your mere presence, that which was not ordained by our Father at the creation of that world._ **

**_I have wondered, often, why it is that Father chose that specific world for you rebirth, for you Grace to hide until you found your way back to it. At times, I wonder if it was a good choice, a safe choice, for one that is not fully-powered to traverse the troubled Earth you find yourself on. I know, like we all do, that our Father is mysterious in his ways, working with knowledge that no other than Himself know and yet, still I question. Still, I worry. I suppose that is my curse as the only one to know what is the fate of all our siblings, to know that your story and path is the beginning of many. What would happen to the rest of our siblings if you, one of the First, cannot complete the path set before you?_ **

**_Father remains quiet and there is none other to reassure me. I must rely on these messages to soothe my thoughts. Knowing that even though I may not be with you, I can still lend you aid gives me a solace that I greatly need._ **

**_That is not, however, the point of this message though I find writing my thoughts to down cathartic. The place that this book was hidden, the secret chamber, has information that is necessary for you to find. Answers to a question that you have asked and that is the key to fixing what is broken._ **

**_I wish I could give you exact details, relay the exact location and name of the item, however, those details have not been granted to me. I have only been told to relay these words to you and nothing more._ **

**_"The secret beneath the hidden chamber, forgotten and protected in time, holds within it the answer to which thy Messenger need find. Truths hidden must be righted, answers and allies need enlightened."_ **

**_I admit, I know not what the meaning behind this message is. If this is how the Father dictated your Message to you, then I hold a most deep respect for your position. Father truly work in ways that are deeply mysterious._ **

**_I hold faith that you will discern the meaning behind our Fathers words and that you triumph in your tasks. You are strong and will be victorious in the face of darkness._ **

**_Good luck, Brother._ **

**_Azrael_ **

Harry felt his eyebrows raise as he read over the message again. "Did I really just get sent a Holy riddle?" He muttered in disbelief.

Gabriel groaned inside their head. _'There are times I wonder if it would actually kill Him to be direct with his information. The prophets being drunk of their asses is not the only reason some information wasn't translated properly.'_

"Is everything alright?" Luna asked him, her voice surprisingly clear. Harry snapped his attention to her and realized that the girl was most likely worried.

"Just a cryptic message," Harry reassured her. "I'll figure it out soon enough. Let's see if anything else has changer down here."

Luna gave him an uncertain look but made her way down the Chamber hallway. Harry grimaced and followed her.

_'Let's hope nothing else headache inducing happens today.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, a new chapter! XD
> 
> This chapter isn't really all that long either however, decided to end it there as it seemed like a good stopping point. The semester is about half-way done so some of my classes are winding down in the work load as we finish up the major assignments. Which is weird, because last year thing started getting more insane instead of less insane around this point, but I'm not complaining! I've suddenly got free time again which means I can start writing more than I have been!
> 
> And fall asleep at my desk less often, that'll be nice too. My back and neck were starting to protest greatly against that.
> 
> Anyways, there was a lot going on in this chapter. If you have any questions, please ask them and I'll do my best to clarify without spoilers. Or just let you know if the answer will be addressed in a later chapter.
> 
> I think that's all I have left to say. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	52. Chapter 52

Harry was pretty sure that they jinxed it.

The entire Chamber seemed to have changed in some way. The place was brighter, thrumming with magic that hadn't been there the last time they had visited. It was almost as if it had gone back in time. The remaining grime that they hadn't been able to get off of the snake statues had completely vanished and there was no trace of water damage anywhere in the Chamber. Harry wouldn't have been able to guess that the place had been flooded for decades at least, centuries at most.

"What happened here?" He wondered. It hadn't been  _that_  long since they'd been down here and as far as Harry knew, he was the only one that could even get down here since no one else spoke Parseltongue. He also very much doubted that Voldemort had broken into the castle just to clean the Chamber.

_'If he didn't bother the first time, I doubt he'd bother now. Especially when infiltrating the castle,'_ Gabriel agreed.  _'Not to mention the fact that he doesn't have a body.'_

Harry snorted at the image of a bodiless Voldemort attempting the clean the Chamber. Yeah, he really doubted that was the case whatsoever.

"Perhaps the nargles did it?" Luna suggested though for once, she didn't seem to think that was the case. Harry shook his head in answer and went back to inspecting the Chamber.

He moved towards the snake statues and laid his hand on it. Harry blinked in surprise at the sudden warmth that was flooding through his limb. The magic coating the statue danced around his hand in greeting, like he was an old friend that hadn't been seen in years.

_'That is definitely not normal.'_  Gabriel breathed in their head.

'I don't think that it's harmful either,' Harry frowned. The magic was clean and friendly in a way that reminded him a bit of the main part of the castle and the Burrow.

_'Oh,'_  Gabriel startled in their mind.  _'It's Hogwarts.'_

Harry felt realization dawn on him as well. It hadn't even occurred to him that the magic that decorated the walls of Hogwarts had never been present within the Chamber. In fact, the Chamber had been devoid of the sentient magic entirely. Now, though, the magic of the school had completely filled the Chamber and brought life back to it.

"It's alright, Luna," Harry grinned at her. Luna gave him a curious look, the question as clear as day on her face. "It's just the castle taking back the Chamber."

Luna beamed back at him, a brightness in her eyes as she went back to inspect the changes. Harry turned his attention back to the magic surrounding his hand. It felt good in a way that was difficult to describe and he was reluctant to remove the appendage and lose that feeling. 'I wonder why the castle is only taking back the Chamber now?'

_'It could be a lot of reasons. We've pretty much restored the place completely, so the castle could have decided to help us along.'_ Yet Gabriel didn't sound all that sure of this answer and Harry couldn't help but think that there was something else going on. Something they were missing that caused the castle to act now through the Chamber had been restored for weeks.

'I don't like this,' Harry admitted, an uneasy feeling settling into his gut. 'The castle knows something we don't, information that made it act now instead of later.'

_'Something that makes it think the Chamber might be needed,'_  Gabriel added in, resigned.  _'Can't we just have one year, one single year, where something horrible isn't about to happen. First this Tournament, then Barty Crouch Jr, and now the castle is preparing for something. I almost miss the Dementors!'_

Keyword being 'almost', Harry thought to himself dryly. Yet his other self had a point, this year seemed to be trying its hardest to make their lives miserable. And that wasn't even counting the cryptic message he now had to decipher.

They had felt when they had first started restoring the Chamber that it would be needed again. Yet, this confirmation from the castle itself, so sudden with no warning, made Harry anxious. He'd never considered that it would be needed so soon. It made him nervous, a sinking feeling in his gut.

"Hey, Luna," Harry called to the blond. "I'm going to go check out Slytherin's study. I want to see if anything there has changed as well."

Luna smiled at him. "Of course, Harry," she replied dreamily before going back to whatever it was she was doing. From the looks of it, she was working on the remaining tapestries that needed to be restored. Or she could just be admiring the thread used, it was hard to tell with her sometimes.

Harry turned around and began making his way to the hidden trap door. He wasn't all that surprised to see that the castle's presence was coating the wooden entrance. He raised his eyebrows in surprise with the trap door swung open as he approached it, revealing a no longer dark hole. Harry blinked at the smooth, black stone that was likely the 'elevator' they'd been using to go down and back up.  _'That explains why we thought it was an endless pit.'_  Gabriel sighed.  _'Honestly, who uses black stone for something like that?'_

Harry didn't have an answer. It wasn't like it had hurt them in the long run and they'd never really had any trouble going up and down after that first time. Harry moved to the foot holes and climbed down to the platform. He braced himself as the stone moved downwards, the wind still feeling strange on his wings.

Harry blinked as the study appeared before him, brighter than he'd ever seen it. The light source form the crystal was almost redundant with the amount of magic that was swirling around the room. That wasn't what really caught Harry's attention. No, Harry was focused on the wooden door.

It was open, revealing a long stretch of hallway that illuminated by the same crystals that were in the study. Harry immediately moved to the doorway and was surprised to see that there were five more doors along the walls and another, larger door, at the very end.

Harry had no idea where the door leads and felt a thrill of excitement shudder through his body and wings. Grinning like mad, he moved through the door and down the hallway. As he got closer to the first door, it swung open, revealing another study. This one, unlike Slytherin's, was done in blue and bronze.  _'Ravenclaw,'_  Gabriel muttered. Book littered the walls and even parts of the floor with no order to them.

'Luna is going to love this,' Harry breathed silently. Rowena Ravenclaw's study, untouched since her death. There was even a small pedestal that Harry knew was likely where her lost diadem would have sat. He was a bit disappointed to see it empty but shrugged the thought away. It would have really hard to explain how he'd come across the famous missing diadem.

Moving out of the room, the door across the hall swung open. Harry snorted at the red and golden colors that decorated the room. The founders had, apparently, been very fond of their colors. Unlike Slytherin and Ravenclaw, weapons of all kinds littered the walls and Harry was amused to see a familiar sword hanging behind the desk.  _'Well, that explains where it went after our second year,'_  Gabriel laughed.  _'That's some magic, connecting it to the Sorting Hat. A good theft protection too.'_

Harry snorted and moved further into the room. The desk was overflowing with different tomes on Runes and Spellcasting. Harry raised his eyebrows when he noticed a knife with unfinished runes carved into it. Whatever it was that claimed Godric Gryffindor's life, it was sudden enough that he'd been unable to finish this project.

Harry walked out of the room and didn't even pause when the next door opened by itself. Hogwarts clearly had an order it wanted him to visit each room in and Harry wasn't about to protest. It was a bit thrilling if he was honest. He'd known that Hogwarts was sentient ever since he'd gained the ability to see magic yet this was the first time the castle actively decided to interact with him.

He wasn't even slightly surprised to see that the room was decorated in yellow and black. The content of Hufflepuff's study was where the real surprise laid. Similar to Gryffindor's, various weapons lay scattered about, however, there was also a pensive on one side of the room, and two bookcases along each side of it. Harry was amused to see that one bookcase was filled with nothing but cookbooks. The other was filled with journals, likely Hufflepuff's own.

_'A person of many interests,'_  Gabriel snickered. Harry grinned openly as he pulled one of the journal's down and flipped it open. Inside was a recipe for Treacle Tarts, of all things.

'Definitely not what I was expecting.' Harry placed the journal back onto the shelves and made a note to copy of few of the recipes down for Mrs. Weasely. He'd give them to her after he told the Headmaster about this place. There was no way that he could keep all of this secret from the man now. As much as he was wary of the Headmaster, Dumbledore deserved to know about all of this. Harry would just have to be careful in how he told the man about it all. Maybe he should broach the topic with Sirius and Remus first, he mused.

He'd also have to fill in Hermione. Distraction from her studies or not, she would actually kill him if he kept this from her. Not to mention that now she was filled in he didn't need to hide his abilities from her anymore. Ron shouldn't ask too many questions either, the redhead no doubt knew that he'd been learning everything soon enough.

There was no way he was telling the twins, though. Harry rather liked the school standing and he had no doubt that the two would find  _some way_  to use something down here in one of their pranks. Even if they had to learn Old English to use any of it.

_'I wonder what the other rooms are,'_  Gabriel mused. They had gone through all of the studies, what else was down here?

Harry left Hufflepuff's study and moved to the next room. The door swung open and Harry snorted when he saw it was a library. While not as big as the Hogwarts Library, it was still a decent size, holding at least two hundred tomes. 'I guess I know where Hermione's going to spend most of her time,' Harry grinned. He'd never even thought about the Founders making their own personal library though he supposed he should have. It also explained why Gryffindor hadn't bothered with any bookcases and why Hufflepuff only had cookbooks. It did, however, make Ravenclaw's study even more amusing. Harry wondered how many of the tomes they had found in the main Chamber actually came from this room.

Harry shrugged and moved on to the next room. He'd leave that up to Luna and Hermione to sort out later. The door across the hall from the library swung open. Harry was unsurprised to see a private potion's lab. Ingredients lined the walls and a workstation sat in the middle of the room. Harry had no idea if the ingredients would still be good so he left them alone. Who knew what kind of reaction some of them would have if he messed with them?

Harry turned to the last door and was only somewhat surprised when the door remained closed. Mostly, he was disappointed, having been hoping that he'd be able to get a complete answer for once as to the truth behind the Chamber and everything else that had been lost to time.

_'Should have realized it wasn't going to be that easy,'_  Gabriel grumbled in their head.  _'At least we have more to go on than we did before. Whatever is behind that door, we'll find out eventually.'_

Harry hummed in agreement, eyeing the pulsing magic around the door with curiosity. No doubt Hogwarts was keeping this a secret for a reason. Until then, he just needed to figure out what all these new discoveries meant. Why had this happened now? What was Hogwarts preparing for? Just why had the castle allowed him past Slytherin's study now?

Harry had a feeling that he really wasn't going to like the answer.

* * *

"What do you mean that Voldemort's trying to regain power?!" Sirius shouted, anger and fear lacing his voice.

He was in the Headmaster's office along with the Heads of Houses, having been called by Dumbledore to an emergency meeting. Sirius hadn't known what to think when he'd gotten the message yet it definitely hadn't been this.

The Ministry had completed their interrogation of Barty Crouch Jr and they hadn't liked what the man had to say. Barty had confirmed how he'd gotten out of Azkaban and that he'd been the one to enter Harry into the Tournament. It was the  _why_  and  _how_  that had not been well received.

After escaping from his father (who had him under the Imperius Curse since breaking him out because Crouch Senior really was a bastard even to his own son) Barty had tracked down Peter Pettigrew and through the rat, the remains of Voldemort. Pettigrew had  _nursed_  the wraith after somehow getting the dark lord a somewhat physical body.

It was Voldemort behind everything. Harry was never going to let them live this down, Sirius sighed internally. His godson had called it from the start and maybe he should have paid more attention to that. Even when all the signs had pointed towards Bartemous Crouch (and that made a lot of sense, now) they shouldn't have shut down the Voldemort angle. If they sped up taking out his Horcruxes then it might not have even been a problem in the first place.

Now they knew that Voldemort was alive, trying to gain power, and had the rat with him but they didn't know where the asshole was or how he planned on grabbing Harry. Just that he'd used the information he'd gained from a Ministry employee (Merlin, that poor woman) and had crafted the runes that had been used to mess with the Goblet.

That wasn't really what Sirius was angry about. No, they could have stopped this in its tracks, shut down every plan Voldemort had, if not for that stupid fucking pink toad.

She'd called the Dementors to guard the prisoner. Then, like an idiot, she'd  _left them alone with him_. All their information, every heads' up they had on Voldemort's plan, gone because of a stupid moron clad in pink with the most annoying simpering voice Sirius had ever heard. "Damnit!" He growled, a bit of Padfoot sneaking into his voice.

"Is there any place that you can think of where Voldemort would go?" Remus asked, calmer than Sirius thought he had any right to be. Sometimes he hated his friends' naturally calm demeanor.

Dumbledore paused a thoughtful look on his face before frowning. "There are a few places that I can think of that Voldemort would be able to hide. I'll begin making inquiries with a few of the old crowd, see if they can't look into them."

Remus blinked, a bit shocked. "You aren't going to check them out yourself?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "Until we know how Voldemort is planning on reaching Harry, it's better that I don't leave the castle. I'm afraid I will also have to suspend Harry's Hogsmeade weekends. Without Barty posing as Alastor, we have no way of knowing if he's going to change his plans."

Sirius winced. Harry wasn't going to be happy about that, especially not after they filled him in on everything that was going on. Dumbledore glanced at him, amused. "I suppose that it would be a fool's errand to ask you to keep this from him?"

Remus snorted before Sirius could. "Harry needs to know that he needs to be careful," he said. "Otherwise he'll end up doing something absolutely idiotic and end up in the middle of it completely unprepared."

Everyone in the room grimaced, likely remembering the previous incidents of years past that Remus and Harry refused to completely fill him in on. For some reason, they were under the impression that he would freak out if he knew everything. Sirius had a horrible feeling that they were probably right.

"Lupin has a point," Severus Snape of all people added in. "Potter seems to flock towards danger no matter what we do. Much as I disapprove of this, keeping the boy in the loop will at least give him a chance to be ready for the attack when it comes."

Sirius stared at the greasy haired man, baffled. So, did the rest of the room, barring Dumbledore. Snape made it no secret how he felt about Harry and his 'moronic tendency to throw himself in the path of whatever danger so much as sniffles at him in his arrogance that no one else is able to handle the danger'.

"Very well," the Headmaster twinkled at them all. Sirius wondered if the man would still have that twinkle if his beard suddenly disappeared. Better yet, maybe he could convince a house-elf to run off with the man's Lemon Drops that he was so fond of. Sirius knew that it would be petty but the dog animagus had never claimed that he was above pettiness. In fact, he remembered quite clearly that he informed everyone to the exact opposite. "I will leave informing young Harry to yourself and Remus, Sirius. I will inform Filch that Harry is not to be allowed to attend Hogsmeade until further notice."

"Albus," Minerva interrupted before the man could dismiss them. "What will the Ministry be doing to handle this?"

The twinkle died a bit in the Headmaster's eyes and Sirius wondered how the Minister had managed to get that sort of reaction. He probably wasn't going to like it. He tended to dislike everything about the Ministry in recent memory. Starting with Crouch (who he sort of hoped was dead because not even Crouch deserved to be a prisoner of Voldemort) and ending with the pink toad that was pretending to be a human. He rather hoped that he wouldn't have to put the Minister on that list.

"The Minister is in a state of," Dumbledore paused. "Panic is the right word, I believe."

"In other words, he's not doing anything and is probably only a few choice words away from outright denial." Pomona sighed. "How that man ever became Minister, I don't know. As for Hogwarts, I think it best if we begin increasing the security around the school."

Dumbledore hummed, considering. "I will talk to Hagrid and have him warn the rest of the inhabitants of the forest. Filius, I would like you to see about enhancing the protections on the entrances and common rooms. I will alert the ghosts and the portraits to be on the lookout for anyone that looks out of place. Remus, if you could give them a description of Peter's animagus form?"

"Of course," Remus answered immediately.

"Very good!" The old man clapped. "Severus, please consult with Poppy and to begin stocking up the Hospital Wing. Make sure she knows how to detect Polyjuice as well."

Snape nodded before stalking out of the room. Sirius was pleased to watch him go. Maybe they hadn't been the nicest when it came to the git during their school years but Snape gave as good as he got. He doubted that they'd ever really get along.

"Sirius," Dumbledore began. "I'll leave Harry to you."

Oh sure, Sirius grumbled as it sunk in what he meant. Give him the easy job.

* * *

_'Why can't we ever catch a break?'_

Harry ignored the comment in favor of banging his head on the table in front of him.

"That's not going to help," Sirius said helpfully. Harry just groaned in answer.

He jinxed himself. He'd known that he wasn't going to like that answer but he really hadn't seen this coming. Of all that times that something like this could have happened, why did it have to be now?

They were in Sirius' office, which had been warded to keep others from listening to their conversation. With that knowledge, Harry began cursing in every single language that he could think of.

"I have feeling that if I knew what you just said, I'd have to scold you." His godfather was far to amused for Harry's peace of mind.

Harry snorted at him. He knew very well that Sirius didn't care one bit if Harry cursed or not. Sirius cursed worse that anyone that Harry had ever known if given the chance. Sirius merely stuck out his tongue in response to Harry's snort. "They've decided to make you my keeper from now on?" Harry asked, mostly as a way to keep this conversation from completely devolving. If there was one thing that his godfather was good at, it was distracting from the original topic. No doubt as self-preservation due to pranking, Harry thought in amusement.

Sirius grimaced. "Unfortunately. I don't know how they expect that to work," his godfather gave him a rueful smile. "You're good at ditching your watchers when you want to."

Harry gave the most innocent smile he could manage. Sirius merely raised his eyebrows at him.

_'_ _Yeah, no one who has lived with us is ever going to fall for that anymore.'_ Gabriel lamented.  _'Even Ron and Hermione don't fall for that anymore.'_

'I think Skeeter's the only one who actually falls for it,' Harry admitted. Most of the student body had pretty much caught on after the whole Dragon event. Not that he had given anything away during that time, all he'd done was call his broom and duck in cover, but the entire populace of Hogwarts had pretty much unanimously decided that Harry no longer qualified as 'innocent' afterward.

_'_ _Might have something to do with Skeeter's article as well,'_  Gabriel snickered.  _'I'm pretty sure that the Twins bragged about that after they heard Cedric blaming it on them. Corrupting the innocent Harry Potter and all that.'_

Harry blinked, 'Huh, I hadn't considered that.'

Before they could really discuss that further, Sirius interrupted. "Not that it isn't really interesting watching you talk to yourself," the man began smirking. Harry glared at him, causing the man to laugh. "What was it that you wanted to tell me pup? You're the one who dragged me aside, remember?"

Oh yeah, Harry gave him a sheepish look. He'd grabbed his godfather from the middle of the hallway, probably startling anyone around them, and proceeded to pull Sirius towards his own office. He'd had Sirius go first with his news after the man mentioned having wanted to talk to him anyways. Harry paused, considering how he was going to start this, before shrugging and just jumping into it.

"During the first month of school, I went down into the Chamber to see if Tom had hidden any of his Horcruxes down there." Harry shrugged. "There was nothing down there but after that first visit, I had the feeling that the Chamber was going to be needed. So, I started restoring it with Luna Lovegood."

Sirius raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You're joking," the dog animagus breathed. "Is  _that_  where you've been disappearing to all this time?!"

Harry grinned at him, nodding.  _'I'd wondered if anyone had noticed that.'_

"While we were down there, we found a hidden trapdoor that leads even further down," Harry decided to leave out the incident that followed that discovery. Sirius never took things like that well. "We found Slytherin's study."

"Of course you did," Sirius bemoaned, rubbing his temples. Harry almost felt bad for piling this on top of what was probably an already stressful day. "What else did you find? If that was it, you wouldn't have decided to tell me now."

_'_ _Very true,'_  Gabriel mused.  _'We do have a bad habit of keeping people out of the loop on certain things.'_

Harry winced inwardly. 'We should probably try and correct that.'

_'_ _Sure we will.'_  Harry could feel the disbelief behind that.

"Hogwarts reintegrated itself to the Chamber," Harry said bluntly. There was no real easy way to tell someone that the castle was sentient. "It's part of the castle again."

"And it wasn't part of the castle before?" Sirius asked and yep, that was the voice his godfather used whenever he had a bad headache coming on. Maybe he should have told Remus and had the werewolf fill Sirius in. Remus was much better at explaining things to Sirius that didn't make his head hurt. "Wait, what do you mean Hogwarts  _reintegrated the chamber into itself?!_ "

_'_ _Here we go.'_

"Hogwarts is sentient," Harry drove into it. "The amount of magic that saturates the walls and the fact that it's been here for over a thousand years, the castle has gained sentience. I noticed it when I first started getting the ability to see magic back."

"Oh great," Sirius sounded like he was having trouble reconciling that information with what he knew of the castle. "Hogwarts is alive. That's perfectly fine. Completely normal. Oh Merlin, I need a drink."

_'_ _Best get this over with before we break him,'_  Gabriel sighed.  _'Or before he gets smashed.'_

"Either way," Harry pushed forward. "Since the Chamber is connected to the castle's magic again, there were changes. The castle completely restored everything in the Chamber's structure that Luna and I couldn't fix. Because of that, I went down to the study to see if anything had changed down there."

Sirius looked much calmer and interested now, seemingly understanding where this conversation was going. He'd also most likely tabled the 'castle is alive' breakdown until later, knowing the man.

"When we first found the study, there was a door there that we couldn't open. When I went down there again, the castle had opened the doorway for me." Harry grinned, still a bit giddy at everything he'd found. While he definitely didn't like the reason for everything (Voldemort was never something he wanted to deal with) he could accept that the discovery was almost worth it.

_'_ _Except not really because there's a maniac trying to kill us again.'_

'Oh, don't ruin the moment.'

_'_ _Therapists_ _ **nightmare**_ _,'_  came the retort.

"It's not just Slytherin's study," He continued without pause. "Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw's study is down there too. There's even a potions lab and a  _library_  down there and I don't think anyone's touched it since they died."

Sirius stared at him, wide-eyed and almost gaping. "You found the studies of  _all the Founder?!_ "

There it was, that was the reaction Harry was hoping for. "I did."

"Merlin, Remus is going to move down there, and we'll never see him again," Sirius breathed. There was a glint in his eyes that suggested that Sirius would join his friend. "Wait, if the entrance is in the Chamber, how did they all get down there?"

Harry shrugged. "There's another door down there that Hogwarts hasn't opened yet. There's probably another way down through it, if I had to guess. You know what this does mean though?"

Sirius frowned at him and Harry could tell that the man hadn't located the implications of this. "It means that all the Founders had a way into the Chamber. They probably helped  _build_  it!" Harry grinned as Sirius blinked in realization. "Everything that we know about Slytherin is wrong!"

Sirius hesitated, "Pup, are you sure?"

"Positive. When Luna and I were restoring everything, we found rooms that had been hidden for years. Broken down portraits and tapestries that we either got rid of or restored. There were benches down there and remains of desks, Sirius. If anything, I think the Chamber was a sanctuary. A place that only someone from a magical bloodline could access and a protector that only Slytherin could control to defend the castle from an attack." Harry paused, waiting for his godfather to connect the dots.

"An attack from what?"

"Muggles." Harry held up his hand before Sirius could comment. "Yes, I know. History of magic paints the Witch Burnings as some mild inconvenience but Sirius, that was only true to adult Purebloods. Muggleborns and even Halfbloods? They didn't have a way to learn spells to protect themselves back then, Padfoot. Heck, some didn't even have wands! Ollivander's ancestors sold wands, yes, but only those who grew up with magic knew what a wand even was."

"And not all muggleborns can accept the fact that they're wizards," he continued. "Even today, some turn down attending Hogwarts and get their magic bound and minds erased so they can live 'normal' lives. Back when being a witch or wizard was seen as a crime and the sentence death? Anyone of those muggleborns could have led the Witch Hunters here after they were approached by the Founders."

"Which is why the Founders made a Chamber the muggles couldn't get into." Sirius finished for him. He looked as if everything he'd ever thought had been ripped out from under him. Which was probably accurate, Harry grimaced. "Merlin, how could things have been twisted so much in only a thousand years?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I only really theorized about it before. Luna, though, she found a journal detailing the reasons after I showed her the other studies. Ravenclaw had written the whole thing down, she even detailed an outline for the wards so that the Chamber wouldn't be their only line of defense."

Getting her to put the journal down and leave the Chamber after that had been an experience. In futility, for the most part. He had a feeling he was going to have a harder time with Hermione and maybe even Remus after the other two saw everything that was down there. Harry had finally been forced to steal her book on Old English just to get the girl to pay attention to him. He wondered if he'd have to start teaching them after this.

"You can't keep this secret, Harry." Sirius finally breathed. "You just uncovered pieces history that have been lost likely since the death of the Founders. Who knows what could be down there? Wait, was Ravenclaw's diadem down there?"

Harry almost snickered at the question. "No," he shook his head. "Just the pedestal where it was kept. The diadem is still missing."

Sirius looked almost disappointed.

"I did find Gryffindor's sword." Harry grinned at him. "Apparently, when it goes back into the Sorting Hat, it returns to his study."

"Oh Merlin," Sirius grinned. "This is brilliant Harry! I can't wait to see the look on Binn's face when he learns the Chamber is not only real but that it invalidates everything we know about that time era."

_'_ _Probably similar to how he looked when Hermione interrupted his lesson in our second year,'_  Gabriel laughed. Harry snickered.

"I can't believe this is where you've been disappearing to!" Sirius shook his head. "I never would have guessed any of this. How are you planning on telling everyone?"

Harry winced. "Ah, that's why I wanted to talk to you. I know we need to let Dumbledore in on everything at the very least, but I have no clue how to go about telling him anything. How do I explain exactly why I was going down there in the first place? Or why I only told Luna? Not to mention how a fourth year and a third year restored the Chamber in the first place."

"Ah," Sirius winced as well. "That's going to hard. I don't know how much Dumbledore suspects about Voldemort and how he's alive. Do you think it's time to start letting him in on the secret? He's going to be watching you closer than ever with Voldemort as an immediate threat to both you and the school."

_'_ _Fuck,'_  Gabriel cursed.  _'He's going to start noticing things that are off about us. I'm a bit surprised that we haven't caught his attention yet.'_

"He's bound to already know that there's something off about us," Harry mused aloud, answering both Sirius and Gabriel. "Second year with the Chamber and last year with the Dementors? No one is ever going to claim that Albus Dumbledore is stupid. I think Hope might be the only reason he hasn't pushed it."

Unicorns were picky. They only accepted those with a pure soul and Harry had befriended her before he'd started regaining his memories of Gabriel and their past lives. Dumbledore probably would have seen that as a good sign.

"I know that neither of is entirely comfortable with him," Sirius sighed. "Not completely anyway. But he knows Voldemort better than any of us. I don't know how. Maybe from when he was a student, though I can't remember seeing his name down in the year books."

Harry winced. Ah, he knew he'd been forgetting something when he'd told Sirius about Horcruxes. Tom Riddle wasn't really connected with Voldemort to the populace. Or even anyone outside of Dumbledore, Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione. Harry didn't think that anyone else knew, he had no doubt that Voldemort had killed anyone he could that knew the truth behind his heritage and origin.

"He might know where Voldemort would hide the Horcruxes or even what they look like better than we would." Harry sighed. He'd hoped that he wouldn't have ever needed to include Dumbledore on any level. The man gave him an eerie feeling at times, like there was something dark trying to overtake his soul that Harry couldn't see. It had taken him a long time to pinpoint that as the reason behind his unease with the man.

_'_ _Whatever it is,'_  Gabriel sighed.  _'We might actually need him. We could have gotten by without him before this, however, Voldemort's actions don't give us a lot of time. He's a problem that we need to deal with before this gets out of hand.'_

"Exactly," Sirius sighed, unknowingly dragging Harry back into the conversation at hand. "While it might be a boon to us and while it could speed things up, we don't do this unless you're sure, Harry. We can debate why he needs to be told, the good that could result from having him with us, and even the possible necessity behind it. But we don't do or say anything unless you can answer me one thing. Without any hesitation whatsoever."

There was a seriousness in his eyes, enough so that Harry didn't snort at the unintentional joke his thoughts had conjured. Even Gabriel stayed quiet, interested in hearing what Sirius had to say. The question his godfather was certain would answer the Dumbledore problem.

"Do you trust him?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here you are! A new chapter!
> 
> Yeah, I know. Another chapter so soon! I didn't really expect to finish this before Thanksgiving break but I ended up getting really into writing this chapter and put off some homework instead. I'm going to regret that later tonight, I just know it. I'm pretty sure I have an essay due tomorrow that I need to finish. You know what, I'm regretting it already now that I'm looking at what time it is and my list of things due tomorrow. Crap.
> 
> Oh well, I probably needed a break from the homework anyway. And you get a new chapter out of my procrastination so I doubt you're all complaining. ;D
> 
> Welp, I'm going to cut this short because I actually do need to get that essay done tonight. As always, I will answer any and all questions you ask barring spoilers.
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


	53. Chapter 53

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has not been proof-read.

_"Yes."_

_It was stupid, against all logical sense, and yet Harry still found himself trusting the elder man. Maybe it was left over from his first year, maybe it was a completely irrational, or maybe it was the man's soul. There was wear on it, like all souls gained once they reached a certain age, yet there was also a bright purity that radiated from it. Brighter than most of the souls that Harry had seen. Despite everything that told him that Dumbledore should not be trusted, Harry still did. His instincts told him that this man would not make him regret his decision._

_'Wow, we're never going to stop being a complete moron are we?' Gabriel sighed though Harry knew that the archangel felt the same way. 'Hope this one doesn't blow up in our faces.'_

_Sirius nodded, accepting the answer with an ease that Harry was surprised to see. He'd have thought the man would have protested this, put up some sort of fight against telling Albus Dumbledore anything, and yet there was no sign that the animagus was against this._

_Sirius smiled at him, obviously predicting Harry's surprise. "Pup, everything that I know about Dumbledore, you know. If you still think he can be trusted then there's something that you're seeing in him that isn't visible to the rest of us. You've proven that you can be trusted to make these calls. When we first met, it took you all of five minutes of knowing me to know that I was telling the truth. Instincts like that? Shouldn't be ignored."_

_'Huh,' Harry thought. He'd never really thought about it like that. Thinking back, his instincts had told him that something was wrong with the story of Sirius Black. From the moment he'd heard the story, he'd known that there was something missing. Coming face to face with the man, Harry had heard his story and turned on Peter, almost blindly accepting that what Sirius said was true. That wasn't the only instance of something like that either. He always knew who to trust and who to distance himself from. Sirius, Remus, Hermione, the Weasley's as a whole family, he had always just known that he could trust them. Even before he'd gotten his Grace back and had started regaining his memories. How long had it taken him to fully trust Ron? Or to distrust Draco Malfoy? He'd even trusted Hermione, to an extent, when they first met though he hadn't really liked the girl at that point._

_'I suppose it could be instincts that we kept even without our Grace and memories,' Gabriel hummed. 'A part of our personality that couldn't really be taken away from us.'_

_Probably accurate, they'd have to look back on their memories of their previous lives to be certain, yet he had a feeling that it was going to be just one of those things that he was going to have to accept. And while this has been really eye-opening, there was still another problem. Sirius had his answer, they were going to trust the Headmaster with the truth about Harry, all of it._

_How, though, were they going to bring up the topic with the man?_

* * *

As if figuring out how to approach the man wasn't hard enough, Dumbledore became almost impossible to pin down. The man was almost never in his office, or even in the castle itself, whenever Harry was free from classes. If not for the fact that Harry didn't want to bring attention to the fact that he was trying to pin the man down, he probably would have just started skipping classes.

_'It would figure that the moment we actually want to talk to the man, he's nowhere to be found!'_ Gabriel bemoaned in their head. _'Just where exactly is he going all the time?'_

'I don't know,' Harry sighed internally. The only thing that they did know was that he wasn't in the castle. The Marauder's map had cleared that up for them whenever they used it to attempt to track the man down.

It was becoming more and more apparent that they were going to have to wait to talk to the man as the Tournament once again became more than just an afterthought. February 24th was the date that was set for the Second Task and it was quickly approaching. And Harry had absolutely no idea what they were going to do it.

Oh, he knew that it was going to be underwater and involved searching for a lost object that he'd miss. He had learned that much from when he had opened the egg. Truthfully, he wouldn't have really needed to trick about holding it underwater since he understood most languages. A perk of being created when Ancient Enochian was the only language in existence. Still, the screeching did threaten to give him a headache, so he had used the underwater trick if only for his aching head and not actual need.

He also knew a lot, and he did mean a lot, of spells that could allow him to locate the object and to breath underwater, for the time that was they were given to find the 'missing' item. Completing the task, in general, wasn't going to be all that hard.

No, the real problem came from the limitations that being a seemingly 'normal' (he snorted at the thought, he'd never been normal, not really) fourteen-year-old student stuck him with. What fourth year could perform the Bubblehead charm? Or transfigure themselves gills? Or knew what gillyweed even was? He doubted a simple summoning charm was going to help him at all in this task and to be frank, Harry was getting more and more annoyed as he tried to come up with something that would be reasonable for him to know and be able to do. Not to mention the fact that his core was still being trained which left out some of the more complex spells.

_'Maybe we should try for a second opinion?'_ Gabriel suggested.

Harry grinned after a moment of mulling that over. He knew exactly who would be able to help him solve this.

"Honestly, Harry," Hermione sighed in exasperation once he shared his concerns with her. "You're overthinking this."

Harry cocked his head to the side, eyebrow raised in question. Hermione groaned as she slowly turned her full attention from her book onto him. "Harry, you are in a dangerous Tournament that could very well cost you your life in the eyes of the teachers and the public. Last year, due to the threat that Dementors posed to you, you learn the Patronus Charm. Most adults can't even produce wisps and though no one really knows what the form yours takes is, your Patronus is corporeal. It is well within reason for you to be able to learn more advanced spells when you take certain facts like that into account."

She was right, Harry realized with a start. He hadn't realized what that would seem like to the rest of the world when he learned the Patronus and when Hermione put it like that, it would be reasonable for Harry to come up with some way to manage the other tasks. Bloody hell, he'd even used the Patronus in the first task.

Grinning, an idea began to form as Harry was able to bring a lot more options back onto the table. The Patronus Charm was a charm. A powerful one but still only a charm so it really wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility to use a bubblehead. He thought over the specifics of the charm before sighing and discarding it. His magic simply wasn't refined enough to do something like that for an hour and there were a few faults that came using the bubblehead. Yes, you could breathe underwater using it but that was all it really did. There really weren't any other perks.

The Bubblehead Charm was in truth, a less powerful version of a mostly unknown charm that had the rather unimaginative name 'Water Bubble Charm'. Like the Bubblehead Charm, the Water Bubble filtered water into oxygen in an enclosed space however instead of that space being around your head, it would cover about two inches around the casters entire body. Due to this, their mobility in the water was increased and the person could swim at much greater speed. Best of all, it could easily be mistaken for a Bubblehead Charm if only seen through the water.

Hermione took one look at his face with a smug smile spread across her own face. Harry could practically hear the 'I told you so' as his friend went back to her book.

Harry pretended not to notice that it was a book on muggle religions.

_'I suppose we really should have guessed that she was going to research everything there is to know about us,'_ Gabriel mused in their head. _'So, how hard do you think it's going to be to cast that spell underwater?'_

Harry cursed, ignoring the disapproving glance Hermione sent his way.

* * *

Barty Crouch Junior was dead, having committed suicide in his cell during the night. Or that was what the official report would be once this went public.

In truth, Crouch had been found in his cell at the Ministry murdered. Not by a simple Avada Kedavra, that would have altered the Ministry to the performance of an Unforgivable within the holding cells. Instead, Crouch had been killed by a simple cutting curse that had been overpowered and had ripped the man in half. Albus still shuddered at the thought of such brutality on what was, in all likeliness, a comrade.

That was not the worst of it. They had been able to interrogate Crouch on his presence in Hogwarts and what he had sought to do by entering Harry into the Tournament. It seemed that Tom was beginning to make his move towards a comeback, merely delayed three years by his loss of the Stone at Harry's hands. Fudge was desperately trying to keep this a secret from the gossip mills in the Ministry while Amelia Bones was putting together an undercover Auror squad that would attend the Tournament for the next two tasks. Everything that had to do with the Tournament needed to be triple checked daily to make sure that there was not tampering. The Triwizard Cup, most likely the intended portkey, was now under constant guard and security checks performed by Albus himself.

Nothing going in and out of Hogwarts could go unchecked. Not with the safety of every student on the line, not just Harry. Tom was never one to be rational when his initial plans were thwarted. Many a student had ended up in the hospital wing before due to such mishaps, though there was never anything to prove that Tom was involved.

"Albus?" Minvera's voice pulled him away from such thoughts. The Headmaster sighed, knowing already that he was about to add yet another event to his already busy plate. "Preparations for the Second Task are underway."

Ah, yes. Back to the crux of the issue, the Tournament. He gave another weary sigh. "Make sure that every Auror available is supervising the issue. We'll have to coordinate with the Merpeople as well. I'll let Hagrid know to be on site to sooth any difficulties." Maybe once upon a time, he would have been on sight for translation purposes, yet he found himself unable to make time for such a thing. He was already juggling far too much as it was.

"If I may Albus," Minerva said after a pause, "I believe that if it is necessary, I could take over supervision of the Tournament Tasks as they pertain to Hogwarts. Filius and Pomona are more than willing to split up my duties as Deputy Headmistress between them until things calm down. You are no good to anyone over-worked as you are."

There was a time when he would have denied such a thing and continued insisting on managing everything himself. Certainly, he had done so often enough when the war was still in full-swing and Tom was wreaking havoc across Wizarding Britain. No doubt Minerva expected him to do so again and was likely resigned to managing things behind his back in an effort to help as she had done in the past. Yet he was old and getting older. He couldn't do all the things that he had been capable of during the war, much as he hated to admit, and he very well couldn't manage the threat of a new war, a Tournament between schools, and keeping the Ministry from entering a state of panic (for certainly the Minister was on his way to causing one).

"That would be for the best, I believe," Albus answered after a moment of contemplation. "I fear that there are far more important matters at play than this Tournament."

He didn't bother hiding his amusement at her surprise. "Of course," she smiled. "I'll let Filius and Pomona know. I'll also inform Severus that you will be needing him to keep an eye on his old contacts. Oh, don't give me that look, I know you well enough to know that something else much sinister is going on. You've been in and out of the castle more than you have in the last decade and I lived through that war as well, Albus. I went to school with Tom Riddle and I very much know exactly what kind of person he was. It never sat well with me that there was nobody found that night. And then, Barty Crouch Junior of all people, impersonating Alastor? That is very much something that Riddle would have thought up."

There was a reason, Albus reflected, that she was his right hand during the war. As Head Girl was Riddle was a Prefect, she had experience with his schemes that many of the others of the Order did not. She was one of the very few to make the connection between Lord Voldemort and Tom Riddle, though Albus had never asked her how she'd known. He suspected the reason but was still hesitant to ask. It was, after all, a very personal topic.

"There is very little that I can hide from you," Albus smiled despite himself. He was always pleased to be witness to the cunning mind that was so very often dismissed. There was a reason that she was the Deputy Headmistress and it had nothing to do with her house.

It was time, he mused, to step back and let those around him grow. Alberforth has always said he'd had a problem with playing chess with those around him and perhaps allowing Minerva to take on more would be a step to fixing that admittedly accurate character flaw. If he continued pretending that everything was fine, that he could manage all of his duties alone, there would be no way to tell how many ways that he'd inadvertently cause undue strife.

Minerva gave him a small smile which quickly changed into a grimace. Albus didn't have to ask her what the problem was when the sound of a familiar hoot came from behind him. He felt his eye twitch as the spotted owl of the Minster landed on his desk. "I suppose I'll leave you to it, then." The Deputy Headmistress sighed as he retrieved the letter. "Merlin help us if that man is elected for a new term."

"I wonder if Severus could be convinced to make a batch of headache reliever," he muttered as the familiar feeling of pain began to build behind his eyes.

It looked like he was heading back to the Ministry. Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, I'm not dead!
> 
> So, I know that I wanted to get more chapters out during Winter Break and before the new semester started but yeah, that obviously didn't happen. I got out less than a week before Christmas and spent the week super busy. And after Christmas? Well, I got a new Switch and Breath of the Wild, so you can probably guess what I was doing instead of writing this chapter.
> 
> I was, originally, going to make this a much longer chapter to make up for that but I decided against that when it was obviously taking me a lot longer than expected to get through just this part. For some reason, I was having a lot of trouble with this one. I went through three rewrites before I decided I was going to drive myself insane trying to get it right. I also knew that I wanted this done by this weekend or it was going to be another month, minimum, before I could post it. One of my classes includes a week study abroad in Ireland during the second week of March and I'm going to be doing a lot of homework to make sure that I don't have a pile to come back to as well as preparations for everything I need on the trip itself. The final project is due the Thursday after we get back and I'll be spending nearly all my time on that. It'll likely be the end of March before I can even start writing the next chapter unless I miraculously get some free time before the trip. I rather doubt that though.
> 
> Not really an exciting chapter but it does sort of answer the cliffhanger from the previous chapter and I hope it'll tie you over until the next one. I've recently started reworking a few of my plans for this story and I'm excited for the new outcomes of some things. Not going to spoil anything though so you'll have to wait!
> 
> As always, feel free to ask any questions you have and I'll answer them the best I can, spoiler free!
> 
> ~MisteryMaiden~


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